Another time, another place...cause the space here are almost full up, please, click the link below, and visit the new blog dedicated to The Edge and U2. It´s in construction, but you´re able to be connected on what´s going on today and in the history of U2: http://reginaonumbblog.zip.net/
This new blog is just a bridge to other big blog or to a site; I'm thinking to do the better thing. This actual space is totally full. Anyway, I'll try to be more and more frequent, until, again, to stay here, day-by-day....
One great thing which is happening here is the Debbie's column, Debbie is a huge Bono's follower, great friend (read the yellow post, so YELLOW POST = DEBBIE KREUSER COLUMN)!
The new blog is starting with the visitors number around 46.183, which was the visitors number of this one, when I first posted at the new blog; I think there's justice in this case: the work continues, just it, it's a continuation...
I would like to thank all of you who visit me, who understand me (what patience!), who walk beside me.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eyes" by Antoine de Saint Exupery. God Bless you!
It Might Get Loud, the movie featuring Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White, got its first Irish airing last night at the IFC in Dublin – to a hugely positive reaction. "I thought it was brilliant," Gavin Friday told Hot Press. "I'd been a little bit worried about the way it might shape up, but it works and it works really well. What's great about it is that it's a film about music. When you think of all the crap we're subjected to on television at the moment, and the awful state that the music industry is in, this is totally refreshing. "This is what it is really all about – or should be. They're talking about musicianship, about creativity. I think it's a wonderful film." Edge arrived at the Irish premiere with Bono at his side and introduced the film with a speech that was both gracious and funny. Among the people he thanked were the teachers from Mount Temple who encouraged the band in the early days. The school features in the film, with Edge revisiting the notice board on which the historic note was pinned by Larry Mullen. "If he hadn 't done that, I'd probably have ended up in another band – but it wouldn't have been U2," Edge says in the film. "Would I be doing what I am doing now? I don't know. I'd probably be working in a bank or something." When the movie was over, he was greeted with a sustained and impressively warm ovation from the audience – a mixture of paying customers and guests. Afterwards, Bono reflected on some of the film's fascinating contrasts – most striking among which was the extent to which Jack White emphasised the limitations of technology, while Edge was at the forefront of innovation. He also recalled the house in Howth, which features in the movie, where he and Ali lived, and where the band rehearsed for the War album. "It was tiny," he said. "What you see there is all there was to it, apart from a small bedroom where Ali and I slept. Paul (McGuinness) wanted us to rehearse in a proper rehearsal space in town, but we were having none of it." In addition to a large contingent from Principle management, Dave Fanning and his wife Ursula Courtney, Ned O'Hanlon and Ann Louise Kelly, John Kelly, Gavin Friday, Guggi, designer Michael Mortell, Chantal O'Sullivan, Hot Press' Roisin Dwyer, Mairead Whisker, Valentina Magli and Edge's guitar tech Dallas Schoo, who features strongly in the movie, all attended. "It really is a fascinating contrast in styles and attitudes," says Hot Press editor Niall Stokes. "At the outset it's clear that Edge and Jack White are coming from almost diametrically opposite perspectives on guitar playing and the use of technology. But in the end, when they get down to playing together, all three players discover a commonality in the shared act of making music. There is something wonderfully affirmative in that. "The film is also beautifully shot and there is great archive footage and photography, which is used very evocatively. I think it's a movie that will appeal to anyone who loves music – but especially, of course, to people who have had that experience of falling in love with the guitar. It Might Get Loud is a great film about the romance of making music." It Might Get Loud is playing at the IFC in Temple Bar, Dublin hotpress - PICS:interference - wenn
U2 stars Bono and Edge brave weather for movie launch - Saturday, 9 January 2010 - Bono and The Edge enjoyed a rare boys' night out in Dublin - but were late because of the bad weather. The U2 pair attended a special preview charity screening of Davis Guggenheim's film It Might Get Loud at Temple Bar's Irish Film Institute last night. The stars joined long- time friends, singer Gavin Friday and U2 manager Paul McGuinness, among others, to mark the involvement in the production of U2's very own sculptor in sound, The Edge. To celebrate his achievement dad-of-five David Evans, better known as The Edge, took to the stage before the screening to officially open the film. Wearing his trademark black hat, the legendary musician paid a special tribute to his bandmates and friends of over 30 years. "Obviously without Bono, Adam and Larry I couldn't have done it at all so in their own way they are the wind beneath my wings," he said. "It was great being involved and I was very proud to be invited to take part, I think it turned out very well. It's great to be back in Dublin and I really appreciate so many people coming out in the bad weather to support me." The film examines the interplay between three talented guitarists; modern traditionalist Jack White of The White Stripes, Led Zeppelin's legendary Jimmy Page and, of course, our very own The Edge. The director of An Inconvenient Truth, Guggenheim's aim was to show the three diverse artists' attitudes towards music and their philosophies through various group and individual interviews and footage of the trio. But, according to The Edge, the three were more alike than he had first suspected, explaining that he had forged a close bond with his co-stars during filming. Speaking about White, The Edge described him as "a great showman", revealing that the star had worn six-inch platform heels throughout filming. He also joked with manager Paul McGuinness -- who was seated in the audience -- that he had yet to be paid for the charity venture, laughing that "we'll have to discuss that later". The star paid special tribute to his children during his speech, including model daughter Holly Evans, who was seated next to Bono. Showing his lighter side, the singer, wearing his signature dark glasses, gave his friend's daughter a thumbs up. The Edge also gave some teachers from his former secondary school, Mount Temple Comprehensive School a special mention. "They were the leading force in getting the band going in the first place," he told the packed cinema theatre. His words were met with rapturous applause as he left the stage to take his seat between Bono and Holly to watch the film. Other big names who stepped out to attend the special screening in aid of Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin, included artist Guggi and designer John Rocha. belfasttelegraph
Now Out: Loud - 10 January 2010
The Irish Film Institute in Dublin's Temple Bar was the location for a charity premiere of the Davis Guggenheim directed documentary. On a frozen night Edge provided some warm words - and good gags - before the screening: 'Jack White and Jimmy Page couldn't be here tonight but I don't think you'll miss them too much!' With Bono, Gavin Friday and other friends in the house, Edge made special mention of a couple of teachers from Mount Temple Comprehensive, where Larry, Adam, Bono and Edge first rehearsed together - and which features in the film. 'They were the leading force in getting the band going in the first place.' After the screening, Gavin told Hot Press he'd been impressed. 'I thought it was brilliant. I'd been a little bit worried about the way it might shape up, but it works and it works really well. 'What's great about it is that it's a film about music. When you think of all the crap we're subjected to on television at the moment, and the awful state that the music industry is in, this is totally refreshing. 'This is what it is really all about - or should be. They're talking about musicianship, about creativity. I think it's a wonderful film.' In case this is all new to you, the film brings together Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White to share their passion for the electric guitar. 'Discover Jimmy Page's first appearance on TV as a skiffle-playing adolescent. Revisit the humble venue for U2's first gig - a playground ledge in Dublin. And learn how to make an electric guitar, Jack White-style, with a piece of old wood and some rusty nails.' It opened to great reviews in the US. 'In nearly every moment, an incredibly rich mix of their music, groundbreaking, defining, which alone would be almost enough,' said the LA Times. 'That it comes with a righteous story too is a lovely bonus.' Check out the photos in our It Might Get Loud gallery and the official site which carries details of the DVD which is now released in North America. It Might Get Loud is now showing at the Irish Film Institute in Dublin and from later this week at Queens' Belfast. In the UK you can find it in Norwich, Brighton, Birmingham, Southampton, Oxford, Aberdeen, York, Henley, Cambridge, London (Greenwich, Brixton, Hammersmith), Liverpool, Derby, Glasgow, Bristol, Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester. Read about 'It Might Get Loud' in our earlier story and get a feel for it in this advance trailer. Also available on DVD in the US from 22nd December.
Vatican Says Bono Always Singing About God - 01/07/10 - by Kate Harper (CHARTattack) - Here's something that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone: U2's Bono is down with God. Or at least that's what the Vatican says. According to The Guardian, L'Osservatore Romano, the Catholic institution's official newspaper, recently published an articlearticle (I hope you read Italian) stating that Bono is pretty much always singing about God. The article goes on to point out many of Bono's references to God in U2's lyrics. The article quotes U2: In The Name Of Love, a book by Italian music critic named Andrea Morandi, who argues that all of U2's music features spiritual or Christian references. This includes songs on last year's No Line On The Horizon. Hi there, Captain Obvious! Lester Bangs once argued that Black Sabbath's lyrics inadvertently made them the world's first Catholic rock band. While parents often called Sabbath Satanic, there's no way anyone could do that with U2. Bono's too earnest. He's just too much of a preacher. I mean, you don't really need a recitation of The Lord's Prayer at the beginning of a U2 song to know that Bono's a rock fan's version of a televangelist in disguise (except without that whole doomy and gloomy "you're going to Hell for your sins" rap). There are also tons of U2 fans who would also probably describe a U2 show as a "religious experience." There are quite obvious allusions to God in almost every U2 song. No joke. Let's not forget that there are several U2 songs with "God" in the title that yes, are about God, and "40," from War is basically a rewrite of Psalm 40. I mean, for God's sake (excuse the pun), U2 even have a song called "Yahweh." How much more blatant can you get? I'm kind of unimpressed that the Vatican didn't wake up to this sooner. But then again, it did take them over 40 years to realize John Lennon was joking about that whole "Bigger than Jesus" comment and apologize, so hey. You can hear plenty of religious references at these U2 shows: June 6-7 Anaheim, CA @ Angel Stadium ... Oct. 8 Rome, Italy @ Olympic Stadium - chartattackchartattack
BONO CRIED OVER COHEN - U2 frontman Bono has revealed he cried when he went to a Leonard Cohen show because he was so inspired by the 75-year-old musician's songs. Bono cried when he went to a Leonard Cohen show. The U2 frontman found himself in tears when he watched the 75-year-old folk singer in Monte Carlo because he was amazed by his talent. Bono, 49, said: "I had an epiphany last year. I went to see Leonard Cohen in Monte Carlo. At one point I found myself with tears running down my face. I realised that all my favourite songs he wrote in his 50s and 60s. To me, that was a throw down." After having his creative fires lit by the 'Hallelujah' songwriter, Bono is desperate to start working on U2's next album, rumoured to be entitled 'Songs Of Ascent'. He added to Q magazine: "We've been listening to material for 'Songs Of Ascent'. We haven't fully decided to press 'go' on that. But we're touring at the end of May and it'd be nice to have some new songs." 08 January 2010 17:03:44 - contactmusic
Prosecutor: Fake agent had faked police ID before - January 8, 2009 - WASHINGTON (AP) — Authorities say a man accused of posing as a U.S. Secret Service agent and entering the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services over the weekend had pretended to be a Massachusetts police officer to enter a U2 concert last year. The Norfolk, Mass., District Attorney's Office says 46-year-old Frederick Nickerson pleaded guilty in November to disorderly conduct, trespassing and impersonating a public official, stemming from the concert incident. Authorities say Nickerson flashed what looked like a gold Massachusetts State Police badge and entered Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., on Sept. 21. They say he didn't have a ticket to the concert. When he refused to identify himself, stadium security called police, who then arrested him. usatoday
A long icicle hangs from the fountain at Jackson Square early Friday morning. At 8 a.m. the temperature was at freezing in the French Quarter. A combination of below-freezing temperatures and brisk northerly winds will make it feel like 13 degrees or lower for much of tonight and into early Saturday morning, according to the National Weather Service. ... nola
THIS DAY - U2´S HISTORY: 'Discotheque' / U2 dominates RS mag / Edge speaks out against piracy / Bono meets President Nicolas Sarkozy!
Elvis Aaron Presley was born on January 8, 1935 in East Tupelo, Mississippi. Elvis died at his Memphis home, Graceland, on August 16, 1977. Don't Be Cruel was released as a single with "Hound Dog." Chart position at the time was based on sales, so both songs share the same position. It is the only single in history to have both sides reach #1 in the US. This was written by Otis Blackwell, a songwriter who came up with a lot of hits for Elvis. In addition to this, he also wrote "Return to Sender," "All Shook Up," and "One Broken Heart for Sale" for Elvis. He also wrote "Fever," which was made famous by Peggy Lee, and "Great Balls Of Fire" for Jerry Lee Lewis. Blackwell died in 2002 at age 70. On Christmas Eve 1955, Otis Blackwell found himself on the streets in front of the Brill Building in New York City trying to stay warm. Things weren't going well for Blackwell - it was raining and there were leaks in the soles of his shoes. His friend Leroy Kirkland walked by and asked Otis if he had written anymore songs. Otis said yes. Over the next week, he sold 6 of them to a publishing company for $25 each. Management at The Brill Building liked him so much they offered him a full-time job writing, and Blackwell accepted. Not long after, Otis got some very good news: This up-and-coming Rock star wanted to record one of his songs. The deal was, the guy wanted half the writer's fee. Otis said, "No way I'm gonna give up half that song." His friends convinced him that half of something was better than all of nothing. Besides, this new singer just might "make it" and if he did, Otis' royalties would be tremendous. Over the next few days, Otis agreed. It wasn't Elvis who wanted half the "writer's fee." It was his manager, Colonel Tom Parker. The song became one of Elvis' biggest and longest running hits. Cheap Trick covered this in 1988. Their version hit #4 in the US. Elvis' bass player Bill Black released an instrumental version of this in 1960 which hit US #11. This took only about 20 minutes to record. The single was released in July 1956, but it did not appear on an album until the March 1958 release of Elvis' Golden Records. This song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002.
Bowie - born David Jones on January 8th, 1947 in London.
Discotheque cleared for radio airplay - january 8, 1997.U2 officially releases "Discotheque" to radio stations worldwide. The release is earlier than originally planned due to Internet and previous radio "leaks" of the song.
U2 sweep Rolling Stone magazine polls - january 8, 2002. U2 dominates the annual Rolling Stone magazine polls. The 2001 version has U2 winning three categories in the Critics' Poll and 8 categories in the Readers' Poll.
Edge speaks out against music piracy - january 8, 2004. Edge makes an appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, speaking out against music piracy along with Sheryl Crow and actor Ben Affleck. They're joined on stage by country artist Toby Keith, Dr. Dre, and Jimmy Iovine among others.
Bono meets President Nicolas Sarkozy - January 8, 2008 - France's President Nicolas Sarkozy eets singer Bono of Irish rock band U2 at Elysee Palace in Paris
The Edge to introduce charity preview screening of It Might Get Loud - 07 Jan 2010
U2's Edge will introduce a special preview charity screening of Davis Guggenheim's film It Might Get Loud, on Thursday 7th January. All proceeds go to Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin. The electric guitar isn’t so much an instrument, more of a calling in this affectionate triple-portrait of rock royalty: Led Zeppelin’s legendary Jimmy Page, U2’s very own sculptor in sound The Edge, and fiercely modern traditionalist Jack White of The White Stripes. The IFI also unveiled its brand new luxury cinema screen and upgraded public areas and launches its new programme for the coming year. Sarah Glennie, IFI Director said “We are thrilled to announce the completion of our major 2009 redevelopment. Cinema 3 in particular has allowed us to broaden the range and depth of our programme. I’m delighted to be able to announce a full and varied programme for 2010 incorporating festivals, seasons, new collaborations, programming strands and a range of special events.” These new initiatives for 2010 will run alongside the IFI’s already full and diverse programme of new releases from Ireland and around the world, established monthly strands from the Archive, Ireland on Sunday and IFI Stranger Than Fiction Presents..., as well as extensive IFI Irish Film Archive and IFI Education national activities hotpress
Meteor Ireland Awards Nominees - NOMINEES AND CATEGORIES - January 7, 2010 - Public Voting Categories ... Best Irish Band: Bell X1 / The Coronas / Delorentos / Snow Patrol / U2 ... Best Irish Album: Blue Lights On The Runway - Bell X1 / Tony Was An Ex-Con - The Coronas / The Duckworth Lewis Method - The Duckworth Lewis Method / Up To Now - Snow Patrol / No Line On The Horizon - U2 * Best Irish Live Performance: Bell X1 / Christy Moore / The Script / Snow Patrol / U2 ... rte
U2 expected to dominate Meteors - RONAN MCGREEVY - U2 are expected to dominate the Meteor Music Awards having been nominated in three categories including best Irish band. The 11-time winners are also nominated for best Irish album with No Line on the Horizon , which has had neither the commercial success nor critical acclaim of most of its predecessors. The band were also nominated for best live performance for their three shows at Croke Park last year. Bell X1, who had a successful year in 2009, have also been nominated in the same three categories. Their album Blue Lights on the Runwa y went to number one in the Irish charts and spawned their most successful single to date, The Great Defector . The Coronas were nominated in the best Irish band category and for their album Tony was an Ex-Con . Lead singer Danny O'Reilly, who is the son of singer Mary Black, said the nomination was a reward for the effort they put into their new album which peaked at number three in the Irish charts. The band have just completed a Asian tour of Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. "We spent a lot of time on the record and put everything into it. It's nice to be nominated alongside bands that you grew up listening to like U2 and Snow Patrol," he said. There were few surprises among the nominations, except the inclusion of the relatively unknown Dublin singer Valerie Francis ahead of last year's winner Imelda May in the best Irish female category. The public will be able to vote in eight categories: best radio DJ, best regional DJ, best Irish band, best Irish male, best Irish female, best Irish pop act, best Irish album and best Irish live performance. For the first time in the 10 year history of the awards, there will be a most promising new artist category and unsigned acts will be able to upload their music videos on Youtube to be judged by an expert panel. The awards take place on February 19th at the RDS and will feature Florence and the Machine, the Script, Westlife, Paulo Nutini, The Coronas and Pixie Lott. Nutini and Florence and the Machine have been nominated in the best international album category for Sunny Side Up and Lungs respectively. irishtimes
Everyone Has a Story: Borgata executive's son gets in on U2's Vegas act - January 6, 2010 - As senior vice president of operations for Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, Brigantine's Joe Lupo routinely meets the biggest headliners in the music business, from Tom Petty to Roger Daltrey. But it was his son's unexpected brush with his favorite band that gave Lupo one of the greatest memories of his life. Lupo, 46, who frequently returns to Las Vegas to spend time with his children, Kelsey, 17, and Julian, 14, took them to see U2 at Sam Boyd Stadium in Whitney, Nev., in October. They had great seats inside the outer ring stage that extends into the audience. U2 lead singer Bono was walking across one of the bridges that links the main and outer stages and started pointing in the direction of the Lupos. A stagehand asked Julian if he wanted to "go up" and within seconds Julian was lifted onto the catwalk with Bono in front of about 40,000 people. During the band's version of "City of Blinding Lights," Julian ran around the entire stage, had Bono sing to him personally and received a Bono keepsake. "Bono just handed Julian his sunglasses, so Julian was standing on stage wearing Bono's glasses," Lupo said. "My daughter was screaming, people were taking pictures and yelling things like, 'Man, that's your son!' It was one of the greatest experiences of our family's lives. The strange thing is that on the way to the concert, they asked me what my favorite song was, and I told them it was probably 'City of Blinding Lights.' Julian's a pretty low-key kid. I asked him what he thought and he said, 'It was awesome.'" pressofatlanticcity
Music Rising Remembers Kathy Carpenter - In bidding 2009 farewell, we at Music Rising must also pay tribute to a dear friend who unexpectedly passed away last September. Kathy Carpenter, a Louisiana native and strong supporter of Music Rising, was with us from the beginning and will be sincerely missed. With Kathy Carpenter Marketing Inc., she produced many memorable events over the years, including the celebrity jam sessions at the Gibson Guitar Mountain Lodge during the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, where celebrities autographed guitars that were eventually auctioned to benefit Music Rising. Kathy worked relentlessly to help spread awareness and never failed to make sure that our cause was highlighted at every event, such as the Grammy Lounge and a host of others. Evidence of the success of her efforts can be seen in the photos featured on this site. Kathy truly had a giving spirit and is survived by two sisters and a brother, as well as all of us here at Music Rising. We hope all of you will join us in continuing her legacy into the new decade. musicrising
New Orleans To Honor Legacy Of MLK With Events
NEW ORLEANS -- The city of New Orleans announced Thursday that it will host memorial activities this month to honor the life of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In a news release, city officials said the theme of the events will be titled "Everybody Can Be Great, Because Everybody Can Serve." The schedule of events is as follows: ... wdsu
THIS DAY - U2'S HISTORY: Mission: Impossible / Discotheque / Walk On / Bono to Bill Gates: I can't just replace Edge because you got a high score on Guitar Hero / U2 Larry: My kids use me as taxi driver !
Adam and Larry are nominated for a Grammy - january 7, 1997. Adam and Larry's version of the Mission: Impossible theme is nominated for a Grammy Award in the POP INSTRUMENTAL PERFORMANCE FOR AN ORCHESTRA, GROUP OR SOLOIST category.
Discotheque gets first official radio airplay - january 7, 1977. Paul McGuinness hand-delivers "Discotheque" to Dublin radio personality and longtime U2 friend, Dave Fanning, for its first "official" airplay on Ireland's 2FM.
Walk On gets another Grammy nomination - january 7, 2003.U2's "Walk On" is nominated for a Grammy Award in the BEST ROCK PERFORMANCE BY A DUO OR GROUP WITH VOCAL category. The song nominated is the live version that U2 performed during the America: A Tribute to Heroes telethon for victims of the September 11th attacks. The album version of "Walk On" from All That You Can't Leave Behind won the coveted RECORD OF THE YEAR Grammy at last year's awards.
Bono to Bill Gates: I can't just replace Edge because you got a high score on Guitar Hero - January 7, 2008
Bill Gates talked about how this was his last CES keynote, and his last year at Microsoft. For the first time since he was 17, he won't be a Microsoft employee. He showed a video package of how his last day might go, working out with Matthew McConaughey, producing an album with Jay-Z, asking Hillary Clinton if he can be her Vice President, asking Bono if he can be the new guitarist for U2 ... Bill Gates: live at his 12th and final CES keynote ... 6:46PM PT - Bono: "Yeah, Bill, I'm a little busy here!" Bill's playing Guitar Hero II. "Bill, we've talked about this before. We're full up in the band. All positions are filled. I know... I know... I can't just replace Edge because you got a high score on Guitar Hero." "Bill's always had a passion for music... and as long as it's not my music, I'm fine with that." ...
U2 Larry: My kids use me as taxi driver - January 7, 2009 - Rocker does fare share of parenting - U2's Larry Mullen Jnr. confessed he feels more like a taxi driver than a rocker as he ferries his kids around so much. The Dublin-born drummer made the revelation after being asked about a typical day away from the group. Father-of-three Larry added: "There's rarely a day when there isn't something to do with the band. But a lot of the time I feel like I should put a cap on my head and a sign over my car with taxi written on it. "I spend a lot of time ferrying children, including other people's, to various houses. There's swimming, ballet, soccer -- it goes on. "And if you are left in charge, food is a big issue. "Everyone wants different things. So I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. But I enjoy it." Larry, 47, confessed having a family has left him with little time to indulge his passion for motorcycles. He added: "I still love bikes. But I haven't ridden in a long time. Having kids changed that. "Not only from the safety point of view. You have choices -- what are you going to do? "Go off for three days with your tent or actually take care of your kids? "In 10 years time I'll have as much time as I want to go off and do all those things." The millionaire star also revealed that he and his bandmates don't socialise as much as they used to after working in the studio. He told Q magazine: "It happens occasionally. But when I'm finished on Friday, I'm straight home to see my family. "That's my choice. So we spend less time on a social level. We're still friends, but it's a lot more difficult now. "It's not the four guys fighting the world. That doesn't exist any more. The opportunity to just sit around the pub and have a pint and talk doesn't happen as often as it should." I spend a lot of time ferrying children to ballet, swimming and soccer." mirror
THIS DAY - U2´S HISTORY: Edge is spotlighted by A.J. / Sydney video is nominated / no concert / U2 Break Down 'No Line on the Horizon' - Key tracks from the band's eclectic new album !
"LoveTown" tour - january 6, 1990 - Rotterdam - Holland - Sport Paleis Ahoy. Edge´s guitar fails to work during "Desire". During "Bullet The Blue Sky" Bono jumps off the stage and runs to the audience in the stands to shake hands. While Edge plays his solo and is spotlighted by A.J., Bono runs over the slanting cycle track of the arena and holds on to someone while he tries to get A.J.´s attention. A.J. forgets about Edge, turns around and catches his cousin Bono in a bright beam of light, as he finds his way back on stage again. The second night's performance of "Running to Stand Still" is remarkable in that an extra, and possibly improvised verse is added to the song. Bono apologizes for his vocal problems in December 1989 during the encore, "Sorry I screwed up and you all had to come back. I think this is a good place to end our tour, because we kind of started out in a way over here..."
Sydney video nominated for a Grammy Award - january 6, 1995. The Zoo TV -- Live From Sydney video is nominated for a Grammy Award: Best Music Video, Longform.
U2 says no concert at Freedom of Dublin ceremony - january 6, 2000. Despite a previous announcement by Dublin's Lord Mayor, U2 announces that they will not perform a free concert in Dublin when city leaders give the band the "Freedom of Dublin" award on March 19. The announcement is met with criticism in and around Dublin.
U2 Break Down 'No Line on the Horizon' - Key tracks from the band's eclectic new album - January 6, 2009 - In early December, Rolling Stone traveled to London to visit U2 in the studio as Bono and Co. worked on the upcoming No Line on the Horizon. The journey was as spellbinding and energizing as you might imagine, and you'll be able to read all about it when our new issue hits newsstands on Wednesday, January 7th. To tide you over, here's a track-by-track preview of 10 choice songs (and you can dig deeper into all our U2 coverage in our archive): "Get On Your Boots" The likely first single, this blazing, fuzzed-out rocker picks up where "Vertigo" left off. "It started just with me playing and Larry drumming," the Edge recalls. "And we took it from there." "Stand Up Comedy" Another hard rock tune, powered by an unexpectedly slinky groove and a riff that lands between the Beatles' "Come Together" and Led Zep's "Heartbreaker." Edge recently hung out with Jimmy Page and Jack White for the upcoming documentary It Might Get Loud, and their penchant for blues-based rock rubbed off: "I was just fascinated with seeing how Jimmy played those riffs so simply, and with Jack as well," he says. "Crazy Tonight" "It's kind of like this album's 'Beautiful Day' - it has that kind of joy to it," Bono says. With the refrain "I know I'll go crazy/If I don't go crazy tonight," it's the band's most unabashed pop tune since "Sweetest Thing." "Unknown Caller" This midtempo track could have fit on All That You Can't Leave Behind. "The idea is that the narrator is in an altered state, and his phone starts talking to him," says the Edge. "Tripoli" This strikingly experimental song lurches between disparate styles, including near-operatic choral music, Zooropa-style electronics, and churning arena rock. "Cedars of Lebanon" "On this album, you can feel what is going on in the world at the window, scratching at the windowpane," says Bono, who sings this atmospheric ballad from the point of view of a war correspondent. "Magnificent" "Only love can leave such a mark," Bono roars on what sounds like an instant U2 anthem. Will.i.am has already done what Bono calls "the most extraordinary" remix of the tune. "Moment of Surrender" This seven-minute-long track is one of the album's most ambitious, merging a Joshua Tree-style gospel feel with a hypnotically loping bass line and a syncopated beat. "Every Breaking Wave" A swelling soul-pop song, with bright synth sounds influenced by OMD and, Bono says, "early electronica." "You don't hear indie bands doing blue-eyed soul [like this]," he adds. "No Line on the Horizon" The title track's relentless groove began as a group improvisation. "It's very raw and very to the point," says the Edge. "It's like rock & roll 2009." [From Issue 1071 - January 22, 2009 - rollingstone
Three Kings Day - Last Day of Xmas
January 6 is the Twelfth Day of Christmas - the end of the holiday - celebrated as the Feast of the Epiphany on the Christian calendar, but better known as Three Kings Day in Latin countries and many U.S. cities. The feast commemorates the day on which, according to the Bible, the Three Kings visited the infant Jesus, bearing gifts of tribute. In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg will be among the many marching Tuesday in the annual Three Kings Day - Los Tres Reyes - parade. Celebrations on a smaller scale are also being held in Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia. In many Spanish-speaking countries, Three Kings Day is the big feast - bigger than Christmas Day. On January 5th, children put their shoes out on balconies, terraces, windowsills and terraces, waiting for the Three Kings to ride by - like Santa Claus coming down the chimney - and leave them presents. It's also customary to leave a bottle of wine and cakes for the Kings. Just as with Santa Claus, children write letters to the magi (the Kings) asking for gifts which are left for them on Jan. 6. In Madrid Monday, thousands of children and adults crowded the streets of Madrid in a flurry of sweets, confetti and soap bubbles to greet locals costumed as the three wise men in one of dozens of Epiphany feast parades held across Spain. The kings' carriages - opulently decked out in palm fronds, glitter and lights - paraded from Madrid's Retiro park along the city's boulevards toward the central Plaza Mayor square, in what is traditionally the biggest of the annual processions. Dozens of other floats featured storybook characters such as Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz, giant flowers and animals. Children and adults - many in fancy dress costume - showered sweets over expectant onlookers bunched along the sidewalks. Musical bands, dancers, camels laden with parcels, horses and elephants accompanied the floats. Gospel singers and a brass band welcomed the kings - Gaspar, Melchior and Balthasar - onto the Plaza Mayor. In the annual message to the children of the city, Melchior, played by a local politician, promised all presents would be delivered during the night. He also reminded children of the greatest gifts - love, peace and justice - and urged them to work to create an open and egalitarian society in their city. In the northern port of Gijon, the Magi arrived by boat. In the city of Vitoria, the kings, mindful of diabetic children, handed out sugar-free candy, while in the southern city of Seville, floats showered 90 tons of sweets onto streets filled with revelers, Spain's national news agency reported.
The Edge on the future of the guitar - By Neil McCormick Music Last updated: January 4th, 2010
- The documentary feature film ‘It Might Get Loud’ opens in the UK this Friday, January 8th , about a meeting between three iconic guitarists of different rock generations: the legendary Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, garage blues primitivist Jack White of The White Stripes and U2’s professorial effects master The Edge. My interview with Jimmy Page ran in the Telegraph last week but while researching it I spoke to The Edge, who called from LA just before Christmas. Here, for U2 and guitar fans, is that conversation in full, in which Edge discusses the past and future of the guitar, U2’s new album, why they might play new songs at Glastonbury, the fate of Spiderman and the Edge’s previously unremarked resemblance to a Hollywood sex symbol. Its not often that you might find yourself on stage with some of the greatest guitarists in the world, so what did you learn from the experience? What did I learn? Even though all guitar players are reaching for the ideal guitar tone, I was struck by how different they sounded, and in the hands of other people with different set of ears to put a sound together, its such a different result, and it just showed me how the instrument is so versatile. A trumpet sounds pretty much like a trumpet, and that’s true of a lot instruments, pianos sound like pianos, but there’s something about the guitar, the range of possibilities is much broader. And I really felt our differences influences and points of view were really contained within our sound and choice of sound and ways of playing. Indeed, the way the different personalities express themselves through their instrument is something that comes across very clearly in the film. Yet while the individual journeys that bring you to that shared stage are fascinating, when you do all get together, there’s no great musical explosion, just a lot of tentative twiddling, really. That was the other thing I learned: how useful drummers and bass players and singers are! Put three guitarist together in a room and what you get is lots of guitars. Also I was thinking about what would I play out of my stuff for these guys, and I realised what I do isn’t really designed to be heard solo. Its not like I sit down and write a guitar piece and that becomes a song. I actually rely on what Adam and Larry are doing to complete the picture. The Streets Have No Name doesn’t make any sense out of context, it just becomes this very Philip Glass like set of motifs, and the meaning is really in the changes in the bass and drums. So that was actually a nice realisation, I’m one of those guitar players who’s really integrated into his band. I’m not like Jimmy or Jack, who can play solo guitar that would stand up on its own Do you often play with other guitarists? No, I try and avoid it at all costs. Jamming is really the most awful, excruciating experience for me, I really don’t enjoy it. First of all, that’s not how I work as a guitar player. I compose using the instrument, I don’t really sit down and play for the sake of playing stuff. So the idea of jamming – endless, directionless noodling around some nondescript chord progression – I really find very boring. Obviously a great song is fun to play, but U2 were never really in that phase of The Beatles in Hamburg or Van Morrison in showbands or Dylan in the folk clubs, of knowing and learning a big collection of classics. We never did that, and at the time we were forming as a band there really wasn’t a large collection of songs that we felt like learning. It was actually a moment where the past was being thrown out the window, so its very much part of our DNA as a band not to be too reverential, as a general rule, and to try and look forward all the time. Invention being what we value most highly as opposed to emulation – which is what a lot of musicians feel is important, being able to play like the greats. So what did meeting Jimmy Page mean to you, because at the time of U2’s origins, at the beginning of punk, Led Zeppelin and the so called dinosaur rock bands were almost seen as the enemy, something to be rebelled against. Before meeting Jimmy, I listened back to some Zeppelin stuff and realise it has stood the test of time. It has the hallmark of timeless music, it hasn’t dated, while so much from that era really did date and in fact has completely vanished. It was really dynamic, the visceral power of it was pretty thrilling still, and it brought me back to when I was 14 or 15. That was a nice realisation. And also meeting the man and realising we had so much in common, and actually we are kind of brothers in arms rather than antagonists in terms of musical philosophy. So what did you find that you had in common? I think what has come through, after all the dust has settled on the music of that era, is that everybody assumed that what was important was improvising and having a dexterity with the instrument, so that Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck, the gunslingers of the time, were highly revered, but it turns out it was actually always about composition, always about idea and themes and stuff that you actually had to write. And that where I think Jimmy Page scored, is that his guitar playing was a lot more composed than any of the others of that era and much better for that. And although it’s probably uncool to admit it – and I don’t know if he would ever admit it – but even his solos were really well composed and thought out. I don’t think he was just a guy who would sit down and play the first thing that came into his head, like a Gary Moore, Jeff Beck or Eric. I think he really had the chance to figure things out. It’s the discipline of the work. Its really sharp, really hard, not fuzzy. That was one of the realisations for me.If you were to listen to a collection of the best selling singles of the last year, the guitar is almost noticeable by its absence. When it comes to pop music, its all about synths and electronically treated sound, so even where there is a guitar, its not necessarily recognisable, or the featured instrument. What do you think is the future of the guitar? I don’t think it’s in jeopardy. It seems pretty bright. There’s always somebody on the horizon who seems to be really able to make the instrument their own, and find ways to use it that haven’t been heard before. The biggest band in America right now, in terms of profile and records is The Kings Of Leon, and before them it was The Killers, so there seems to be still a huge interest in guitar music. I’m looking forward to the next Arcade Fire album, and I think Nick Zinner from Yeah Yeah Yeahs is a guitar player who’s really done some interesting things. Ok, the electronica movement seems to be very much in vogue at the moment, probably MGMT kick started that, then you’ve got Justice and the Bloody Beetroots and all that hard dance stuff, but the guitar is managing to hold on, its one of the essential ingredients in contemporary music, like drums. Them Crooked Vultures is also quite cool. I’m not sure it’s on the level of classic but it’s a very interesting guitar record. It’s been a strange year for U2. You had the biggest tour in the world and sold about four million of your album No Line On The Horizon, but it never really caught fire the way other U2 albums have. Indeed, its perceived as a flop. Yeah, there is that smell in the air. We allowed ourselves to think about having a big hit record when in fact it’s a very interesting record but it’s quite a dark record, it’s not really radio friendly. Even ‘Get On Your Boots’, which is high octane, its not a slam dunk of a hit song. I think everyone just got caught up in the plan as opposed to sitting back and thinking about the record we’d made. But I feel OK about it. Often U2 are accused of being more successful than we deserve, in this case I think this record is less successful than it deserved. I think its got some of the best songs we’ve ever written. ‘Moments Of Surrender’ is right up there, and ‘Unknown Caller’. What about the new album, the long rumoured ‘Songs Of Ascent’, which is supposed to be based around more low key material from the Horizon sessions. Well that’s what I’m working on this week, actually. I’m songwriting. In fact, I wrote something this morning just before getting on the phone with you, it sounds great. So on that level we’re pushing forward, we’re not taking it easy, but we won’t really know til the new year what we’ll be able to achieve. There’s a certain sort of practical window of opportunity to release the record that we are operating within. If the material isn’t ready for the early new year we’ll probably have to put it on hold. But I’m looking forward to the idea of playing some of the songs live before they’re released. That would be my consolation prize if we don’t get the album done. We’ve never done it, we’ve always talked to all of our producers about the idea, but I think it would give the tour a little frisson which I think it needs. If you have two or three new songs no one’s heard before thrown in from time to time, I think that would be very exciting, for us as well, to try them and see how they get on. So we can expect to hear new U2 songs at Glastonbury Glastonbury is going to be fun. I’ve never been I think Adam is the only member of U2 whose been to Glastonbury. He went with the Waterboys in the Eighties We’re busy men! We’re often actually doing U2 tours when Glastonbury is on, or working on a project, so its not so strange that we’ve not been. But what is interesting is the way people talk about it, its got this semi-religious aspect. Bono and I were talking about our last record, one of the sub plots is pilgrimage, and in some ways that’s exactly what Glastonbury is. So we’re going to make our pilgrimage. And what about Spiderman, the musical you have been working on with Bono, which seems to have run into a few funding problems? It’s in this hiatus and were just waiting for word on the fundraising to get the production back on track. All the songs are pretty much written, we’ve got a bunch of lyrics to finish off, but all the music is pretty much there, and its all sounding really convincing. It’s a great script, great director, great choreographer. It will happen.So 2010 is shaping up to be another busy year for U2 And they’re shooting the film of your book (Killing Bono). That’s great news. I was talking to the director about who should play me, and I think we agreed on Brad Pitt - telegraph
'I avoid it at all costs..' - 05 January 2010 - Speaking to the Daily Telegraph's Neil McCormick (and longtime band friend), Edge explains why he doesn't often play with other guitarists. 'I try and avoid it at all costs. Jamming is really the most awful, excruciating experience for me, I really don't enjoy it. First of all, that's not how I work as a guitar player. I compose using the instrument, I don't really sit down and play for the sake of playing stuff. So the idea of jamming - endless, directionless noodling around some nondescript chord progression - I really find very boring. Obviously a great song is fun to play, but U2 were never really in that phase of The Beatles in Hamburg or Van Morrison in showbands or Dylan in the folk clubs, of knowing and learning a big collection of classics. We never did that, and at the time we were forming as a band there really wasn't a large collection of songs that we felt like learning. It was actually a moment where the past was being thrown out the window, so it's very much part of our DNA as a band not to be too reverential, as a general rule, and to try and look forward all the time. Invention being what we value most highly as opposed to emulation - which is what a lot of musicians feel is important, being able to play like the greats...' Edge also tells The Telegraph about new songs he's been working on and the band's visit to Glastonbury this summer. But mainly he talks about 'It Might Get Loud' which you can catch a clip of here. U2.com
THE EDGE BLASTS COLLABORATIONS - 05 January 2010 05:45:27
The Edge from U2 has claimed he doesn't like playing guitar with other guitarists. U2 guitarist The Edge has said he hates jamming. The 48-year-old musician - real name David Howell Evans - claims that he tries to "avoid" situations where he has to play with other guitarists. He said: "Jamming is really the most awful, excruciating experience for me, I really don't enjoy it. "First of all that's not how I work as a guitar player. I compose using the instrument, I don't really site down and play for the sake of playing stuff." Discussing U2's latest album 'No Line On The Horizon', which sold four million copies, David suggested that it wasn't well received because the songs were not "really radio friendly". He added to the Daily Telegraph newspaper: "Even 'Get On Your Boots', which is high octane, its not a slam dunk of a hit song. I think everyone has just got caught up in the plan as opposed to sitting back and thinking about the record we'd made. But I feel ok about it." contactmusic
Nirvana bassist defends Bono's antipiracy stance - January 5, 2010 10:27 AM PST - by Greg Sandoval
(Krist Novoselic defends Bono and calls those who ridiculed U2's lead singer a lynch mob)
(Bono wants ISPs to do more to protect content creators) - Krist Novoselic, Nirvana co-founder and bassist, on Tuesday jumped into the white-hot online-piracy debate on the side of copyright owners and U2 frontman Bono. "I love Twitter, and it's disappointing to see the service manifest itself as a lynch mob," Novoselic wrote in blog post titled "Why I agree with Bono" that appeared on the site of alternative newspaper Seattle Weekly. "Bono is the latest in a line of good people who get trashed in the continuing file-sharing controversy." Novoselic is referring to an op-ed piece by Bono that appeared in The New York Times over the weekend. Bono came out strong against file sharing and blasted Internet service providers such as AT&T, Comcast, and Cox Communications for allegedly looking the other way as unauthorized music and film files pour through their pipes. On Monday, Bono's name appeared twice among the 10 top Twitter trends as angry Twitter users ridiculed U2's lead singer. Novoselic joined late rock legend Kurt Cobain to form Nirvana, a lineup that eventually included Dave Grohl, now of the Foo Fighters. Novoselic writes what appears to be a regular blog for Seattle Weekly. Novoselic argues that businesses, including Web services, can't sustain themselves for very long without being compensated for content. The lack of profits will then discourage investment. "Content needs to be worth something, if anybody is going to care about it," Novoselic wrote. "Free content will ultimately resemble, well, free content. Look at it from a venture capitalist's perspective: Somebody bet big bucks on a film like 'Avatar.' They invested many millions [of dollars] to develop cutting-edge motion picture technology that would dazzle enough people to make their money back and then some. "Now imagine 'Avatar' in context of the YouTube model," he continued, "a shaky camcorder with handheld G.I. Joe and Barbie dolls. Which would you pay for?" cnet
THIS DAY - U2´S HISTORY: Bono joins Jim Kerr / "..."We're playing these concerts because we're going to go away for a while after these concerts, and start all over again...Really... / U2´s tour is delayed!"
Bono joins Jim Kerr - january 5, 1985 -Bono joins Jim Kerr of "Simple Minds" onstage at the Barrowlands in Glasgow. They duet on Al Green's "Take Me to the River" and "The Doors" "Light My Fire".
"LoveTown" tour - january 5, 1990 - U2 perform four shows in Rotterdam, Holland at the Sport Paleis Ahoy. These are the concerts scheduled to make up the December 18, 19 and 20, 1989 concerts that were cancelled when Bono severely strained his voice. On the first night, the show starts with "God Part II" and Bono shouting to the crowd, "I can sing! I can sing!...or as they say in my hometown, that's a matter of opinion!" Bono has some trouble finding someone to play guitar during "People Get Ready" as several people get on stage and make an effort to play, "The last one's going to need an ambulance if he's not telling the truth!" Bono shouts. One more guy gets up on stage and is able to play the guitar--"Hallelujah!" Bono roars. "As well as teaching me how to play guitar, B.B. King has been helping me learn how to sing so that I don't screw up my voice," Bono explains to the crowd before "Love Rescue Me", "We're playing these concerts because we're going to go away for a while after these concerts, and start all over again...Really. We've had a great ten years, you've spoiled us rotten, and we're going to have another great ten years. We're just going away for a while."
"U2's tour (and announcement) is delayed" - january 5, 2005. Rolling Stone magazine reports on its web site that U2 has postponed its upcoming tour due to a "family illness." The magazine reports that the tour was due to be announced and tickets would go on sale later this month, but those plans are also delayed. Paul McGuinness had announced two months earlier that the tour would begin March 1st in Florida. As the news spreads online, fans use mailing lists and message boards to post messages of prayers and support.
'It Might Get Loud' is released to European audiences this week and Edge has been talking to The Times newspaper in the UK. 'What came out of the movie,' he says, 'was that it doesn't matter what your influences are, it's whether you are an originator. It's about attempting to express the sound in your head you can't otherwise explain.' Read the whole piece here and watch this clip. U2.com
Ten For the Next Ten - 03 January 2010 - In his latest column for the New York Times, Bono comes up with his Top Ten list of ideas that might make the next decade 'more interesting.' From solving the problem of intellectual property in the digital age to the first World Cup in Africa, from the return of the 'sexy' car to transformative health initiatives like Angiogenesis and rotavirus vaccines. Here's one of the ten, 'Viva la (Nonviolent) Revolucion.' 'As someone who stands here as a direct consequence of Dr. King's life work,' President Obama said in his Nobel acceptance speech, 'I am living testimony to the moral force of nonviolence. So, he might have added, are the Germans and Eastern Europeans who came out a couple of months ago to celebrate the anniversary of the fall of the Wall. And so are the brave Iranians who continue to take to the streets despite the certainty of brutal repression. Like Neda Agha Soltan, they are living (and bleeding and dying) testimony. The start of the decade ought to be a time for a little bit of hope - not the wispy stuff, but battle-hardened hope, forged in the grim, purposeful spirit of the times. So I'll place my hopes on the possibility - however remote at the moment - that the regimes in North Korea, Myanmar and elsewhere are taking note of the trouble an aroused citizenry can give to tyrants, and that people in places filled with rage and despair, places like the Palestinian territories, will in the days ahead find among them their Gandhi, their King, their Aung San Suu Kyi.' Read the whole column at The New York Times. U2.com
Op-Ed Guest Columnist - Ten for the Next Ten By BONO - Published: January 2, 2010 - Dublin
IF we have overindulged in anything these past several days, it is neither holiday ham nor American football; it is Top 10 lists. We have been stuffed full of them. Even in these self-restrained pages, it has been impossible to avoid the end-of-the-decade accountings of the 10 best such-and-suches and the 10 worst fill-in-the-blanks. And so, in the spirit of rock star excess, I offer yet another. The main difference, if it matters, is that this list looks forward, not backward. So here, then, are 10 ideas that might make the next 10 years more interesting, healthy or civil. Some are trivial, some fundamental. They have little in common with one another except that I am seized by each, and moved by its potential to change our world. ... A Person (Dr. William Li) and a Word (Angiogenesis);Angiogenesis is the process by which new blood vessels grow. This is good — except when it’s very bad, as in the case of cancerous tumors. Blood vessels are their supply lines. Dr. William Li of the Angiogenesis Foundation has called research in this realm the “first medical revolution of the 21st century,” and he should know. (I shouldn’t, given my lack of a medical pedigree, but I learned about it from my bandmate the Edge, who supports Dr. Li’s foundation.) Work on angiogenesis inhibitors is at the vanguard. In a world worrying about whether it can afford health care, advances in prevention are at a premium. Factoid: Cancers start as tiny nests of malignant cells that do not enlarge until they recruit new vessels to deliver oxygen and nutrients; then a cancer can expand 16,000 times in only two weeks. ... nytimes
Bono calls for control over Internet downloads - Sat Jan 2, 10:42 pm ET - WASHINGTON (AFP) – Irish rock star Bono called Sunday for tougher controls over the spread of intellectual property over the Internet, arguing that file swiping and sharing hurt creators of cultural products. "The only thing protecting the movie and TV industries from the fate that has befallen music and indeed the newspaper business is the size of the files," the lead singer of the band U2 wrote in an op-ed piece in The New York Times. He pointed out that "the immutable laws of bandwidth" indicate that technology is just a few years from allowing viewers to download entire movies in just a few seconds. "A decade's worth of music file-sharing and swiping has made clear that the people it hurts are the creators -- in this case, the young, fledgling songwriters who can't live off ticket and T-shirt sales like the least sympathetic among us," Bono noted. The singer pointed out that the US effort to stop child pornography and China's effort to suppress online dissent indicate that it is "perfectly possible to track" Internet content. "Perhaps movie moguls will succeed where musicians and their moguls have failed so far, and rally America to defend the most creative economy in the world, where music, film, TV and video games help to account for nearly four percent of gross domestic product," Bono said. yahoo
Mardi Gras season, Anthony Bourdain and Fleur de Tease highlight the week ahead
(King cake) The 2010 Mardi Gras season is upon us! Wednesday, January 6 marks "Twelfth Night" with music, parades and of course, King Cake. In the Clubs this week, Leah Chase sings at Snug, the lovely ladies of Fleur de Tease help to start the New Year right and DJ Soul Sister spins her own version of "80s Night" at One Eyed Jacks, Anders Osborne rocks Tipitina's, New York's Dharma Bums play d.b.a. and Meschiya Lake continues to swing at the Spotted Cat. Also, food rock-star Anthony Bourdain talks all things edible at the Mahalia andthe Museum of the American Cocktail shows us the garden is for more than simply cooking ... nola
THIS DAY - U2´S HISTORY: Grammy nominations: POPMart Mexico City, Elevation, Walk On... / ESPN premieres ABOY!
PopMart Mexico City home video gets Grammy nomination - january4, 2000. U2's PopMart Live From Mexico City video is nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Long Form Music Video category. (The video does not win when awards are announced in February.) U2 picks up 8 Grammy nominations - january 4, 2002. U2 gets 8 nominations for the 2002 Grammy Awards, including two nominations in one category with "Elevation" and "Walk On" nominated for BEST ROCK SONG. They also earn nominations in the key categories ALBUM OF THE YEAR, SONG OF THE YEAR, and RECORD OF THE YEAR.
"All Because Of You" - january 4, 2005 -
ABC and ESPN score premiere of U2 music video. U2's new video for "All Because Of You" -- shot six weeks ago on the streets of New York -- makes it world premiere tonight on ABC-TV when an edited version of the video airs at halftime of the Orange Bowl college football championship game. The full version airs later in the evening on ESPN's "Sportscenter" program. In both cases, the clip has highlights from the football game edited into it. The full video without football highlights is also made available for viewing on the ESPN.com web site.
UPDATE - JANUARY 3 - THIS DAY - U2´S HISTORY: sell out crowd in 1979 / "Beautiful Day" scores three Grammy nominations / Adam Clayton at party in Brazil (a benefit party)
"Early Ireland" - january 3, 1979 - U2 perform in Dublin, Ireland at McGonagle's to a sell out crowd.
"Beautiful Day" scores three Grammy nominations - january 3, 2001. Grammy Award nominations: Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.
Adam Clayton at party in Brazil (a benefit party) - January 3, 2009
According to this article at glamurama.uol.com.br, happened a benefit party at Pousada Etnia, where Adam stayed, to benefit locals. Anthony Robinson from Live Nation made the setlist party. This pic is from the farewell of the season. One of the songs was U2's. Brazilian fan Paula Gazzinelli, met Adam and she promissed a pic ... at ultraviolet
The Edge on guitarists, Glasbonbury and musicals - January 2, 2010
The name on his passport says Dave Evans but the rest of the world knows him as The Edge, the moniker handed to him by a young Bono Vox in U2’s early days in Seventies Dublin. Polite and self-effacing, the guitarist is a self-confessed “music obsessive” who finishes our interview asking what new bands he should catch up on. His status presents many opportunities, not least the chance to work and play with his musical heroes. At the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 25th anniversary concert in October he accompanied Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, Black Eyed Peas and Patti Smith. “That was amazing,” he recalls. “You don’t get many opportunities to play with artists of that calibre in your life.” Actually, he gets more than most, as evidenced by his starring role alongside Jimmy Page and Jack White in the big-screen rockumentary It Might Get Loud. A guitar fan’s wet dream, it traces the threesome’s differing approaches to their art before bringing them together to jam.“What came out of the movie,” he says, “was that it doesn’t matter what your influences are, it’s whether you are an originator. It’s about attempting to express the sound in your head you can’t otherwise explain.” ...guitarists: Jimmy Page An utter gentleman. I found him as I hoped, great company. He came from the blues whereas we started U2 as a reaction against all of that. Jack White (of the White Stripes) It’s early days for Jack in a sense but you can already hear the multitude of Jack Whites out there. That’s an indicator to his influence. Keith Richards You know when something still sounds as luminous and bright as it did the day it was coined? The riff to Satisfaction is like that. It crystallised a moment in time but it has a power that is undeniable. Tom Verlaine & Richard Lloyd (of Television) Television were a huge influence at the time. The composition of Marquee Moon changed my way of thinking about the guitar. It made me challenge myself. It wasn’t so much “I want to sound like them” but “What can I do?” Nick Zinner (of Yeah Yeah Yeahs) He has a really potent but minimal style. That was something we took from the nihilism of the punk era, maximum effect from minimal input, something I try to retain. ...Glastonbury: By the time Glastonbury hit its stride we were doing our own thing. It didn’t seem right for us then. It feels like we really have to do it because if we don’t do it now, we never will. I’m obviously familiar with the festival’s ideal but I’ve never experienced it. I used to be sceptical of its roots, the hippy thing. I’m going along to check it out as much as anything but I have a good feeling about it. I’d like to hope we can make our mark. ...musicals: Spider-Man I’ve been working on this with Bono for a while and it’s probably going to happen in the spring. It’s not a straight rock musical, there’s other stuff going on. Opera would be the closest reference. Writing character-led songs was a really fresh challenge and we’re very excited about it. There’s some fantastic music in there. West Side Story I’m a fan of the great musicals but there’s plenty of poor ones because they can be as ripe with clichés as any rock’n’roll. West Side Story however is undeniably brilliant and highly original. Oliver! As a kid, one of the first records I got as a Christmas gift was Oliver!, which had some marvellous tunes. I met Lionel Bart later on and he turned out to be a sweet man. Tommy The original rock opera. A really original story matched with some huge songs. It set a new benchmark at the time. Cabaret I’ve seen it performed on stage and as a movie, and it’s wonderful. I love the dark Weimar thing. ...the 360 degree tour: Working with 'The Claw’ [the tour’s futuristic stage set] has been a challenge, but after a while we started to get into it. The fact there are four of us means we can spread out across the stage and come back together. It reinforces the band thing. It was almost a conscious decision to get into a huddle and play for each other as much as for the audience. ...Bono: In my opinion he’s the best frontman of any band, a great performer and lyricist. I’ve never doubted I had the best singer of his generation in the band. His politics is very much an extension of the band ethos. We’ve always supported the things we believe in. He took it to a new level by getting inside those things. I think there’s a compromise there that I personally don’t want to be involved in. I don’t want to be in the meetings. In my opinion, the artist has a duty to maintain an idealistic view of the world. Bono is one of those people who can see it from all angles without compromising himself as an artist. I’m amazed by that. timesonline
Reverend, that's BONO over there! - By David MEDCALF - Wednesday December 30 2009 - WORSHIPPERS attending the Christmas Day service at St. Mary's Church of Ireland church in Enniscorthy had some very distinguished, unexpected visitors in their midst on Friday. Church warden Ken Leech opened the church door to a gentleman wearing a dark coat and the trademark glasses of Ireland's best-known rock singer. The stranger was accompanied by his wife, two children and his father-in-law who all took their place without fuss in a pew among the congregation of 94. Word was relayed to Archdeacon Chris Long that Bono and family were in the church, all unannounced, but the Rector did not quite believe it until he spotted him during his sermon. Yes, it really was Paul Hewson (also known as Bono), Ali Hewson, along with their children and Ali's father who has a house in the Scarawalsh area. The Reverend Long was not the only one doing a double take as it became clear that some very famous people were in the building. Bono told the Sunday Independent at the weekend that he had a really great Christmas, which he described as 'very homely', without making any reference to St. Mary's. They made a good, if quiet, impression on Christmas Day as they kept a low profile and did nothing to draw any attention to themselves. They left after shaking hands the archdeacon and exchanging 'happy Christmas' greetings with fellow churchgoers. - David MEDCALF - wexfordpeople
Levee statistics point up their importance to nation's economy
Although many U.S. communities have levees, New Orleans' near-total reliance on them is unusual, according to Gerald Galloway, a research engineer at the University of Maryland. The Lake Pontchartrain levee in Metairie was photographed in June.Most Americans live in counties that are at least partially protected by earthen and concrete levees, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency statistics obtained by the New Orleans-based group Levees.org.... nola
Hello, hello! This is the first entry of many that I will write for this column in "Edge's Blog" devoted to all things U2 - their music, their spirituality and their social activism. It is entitled "FOR BONO: VISION OVER VISIBILITY" as I will endeavor to get to the heart of the subjects that I'll write about. I'll attempt to draw out into the light those aspects of U2 and of ourselves that are often invisible to our daily lives. Quite a lofty goal to aim for, I know, but if you don't aim high in life, how will you ever achieve your goals?
Let's start with an introduction: I have been a U2 follower for nearly thirty years. Being Bono's age, I have grown up parallel to U2, developing my own sense of spirituality and social activism very similarly to theirs. It has been a joyous journey so far with this band and I look forward to many more years of listening to and learning from their music.
Still, I am my own person and revolt against the idea of "fan worship". Having been able to meet several members of the band and having had the chance to spend some time in meetings talking with Bono, I have been able to get a much fuller appreciation of U2 as four individuals and less as one conglomerate whole....and I like it better that way.
I am also a social activist in my own right, starting out with African "causes" as far back as June 1976 - three months before Larry ever put up that infamous note on the Mt. Temple bulletin board for bandmates. So while I follow U2, I retain my own identity which is what I think they really like and respect in their fanbase.
While I love each member of U2 for their essential contributions to the band, Bono always has and always will be my favorite. From the first time that I saw him perform on the Tom Synder show in the USA in 1981, I knew that he was someone special. The optimism in his eyes, the hope in his words and the humility in the way that he lived his life offstage hooked me at an early age and has never let me go....And I hope it never will.
So this is me in several paragraphs. Not a complete introduction but enough for us to get started. I hope that you will feel free to leave your comments after each entry as I truly value what you have to say. Try to keep it positive, though. There's never a reason to be ugly with each other.
I'll be back in two weeks with a remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and of the wonderful day that Bono spent with Coretta Scott King at the King Center in Atlanta GA six years ago ....and I was there to report on it all. Until then, please enjoy this classic U2 video which gives us four essential words to live a peaceful and prosperous life by "I Will Begin Again". I will follow.
THIS DAY - U2'S HISTORY: Hard Rock International Launches Bono Signature Series - Proceeds Benefit African Cotton Farmers and Build Trade in Africa / Lanois Promises 'Innovative' Songs on New U2 Album / Two-year delay for revamp of U2 hotel.
Hard Rock International Launches Bono Signature Series - Proceeds Benefit African Cotton Farmers and Build Trade in Africa - January 2, 2008 - U2's Bono is recognized as one of the world's greatest performers and activists. Now, through edun LIVE's partnership with Hard Rock, Bono is combining his love for music with his wife and EDUN co-founder Ali Hewson's work toward sustained development in Africa. Hard Rock International is proud to launch its latest Signature Series, featuring an edun LIVE t-shirt, adorned with an image by Bono. Hard Rock's Signature Series: Edition XXV is printed on an edun Live T Shirt made from 100% African cotton and features an image by Bono - a fish soaring through the moon and stars, with the words "fish can fly . . .", and Bono's signature. The Bono Signature Series T-shirt is set on a black 100% African cotton t-shirt, available in men's sizes, and on a white 100% African cotton t-shirt, offered in women's sizes. Hard Rock's 25th Signature Series T-shirt is produced by edun LIVE, an ethical t-shirt company, created by Bono and his wife Ali Hewson. Hard Rock International is offering fans the chance to own the limited- edition T-shirt, which will be available January 7, 2008 online at www.hardrock.com/rockshop and at Rock Shops at Hard Rock Cafes, Hotels and Casinos.
Lanois Promises 'Innovative' Songs on New U2 Album -January 2, 2008 - Twenty years ago, producer Daniel Lanois teamed with U2 on the band's landmark album, 'The Joshua Tree.' Two decades later, Lanois is back in the studio with the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, working on their forthcoming album, due this year. "I'm doing some writing with [Brian] Eno and U2," Lanois tells Spinner of the effort when he sat down for a forthcoming Spinner interview. "We're gonna knock out another record that's promising to be a fantastically innovative collection of songs. I'm excited about that." As for what the new songs will offer, Lanois says that some hints may be gleaned from the music they've been listening to of late. "We've been referencing Jimi Hendrix records recently," Lanois says. "I was interested in the drum feels and that track 'Crosstown Traffic' has an incredible drum performance. When [we were] working a couple of weeks back, we wanted to hear some of that Mitch Mitchell drumming." Lanois also revels in his collaboration with Eno, also a former U2 collaborator and who appears in Lanois' film, 'Here Is What Is.' "I play really well with Eno," Lanois says. "In a manner of minutes we've got something happening in the room that's special -- even without talking about it. We just pick up our instruments and we're there. I might have an idea, Eno might have an idea, somebody else has an idea, and as we jockey them around, momentum builds up and there's some kind of a whirlwind. We just thank our lucky stars that we have that chemistry within us." source: spinner
Two-year delay for revamp of U2 hotel - January 2, 2009 - THE €150m redevelopment of U2's Clarence Hotel will not get under way for another two years. After a protracted planning application process, Bono and The Edge are willing to wait before closing down the Dublin city centre hotel. A spokeswoman for the project told the Herald the Clarence would operate as normal for the next two years. "The owners are currently working on the design and pro-ject management requirements. For the next two years, the Clarence Hotel is fully operational as normal," she said. The hotel will re-open again following the redevelopment in 2012 or 2013, the spokeswoman added. An Bord Pleanala gave the go ahead last July to the Norman Foster-designed pro-ject, which has been going through the planning process for over a year and a half. The decision was hugely significant as the redevelopment will involve gutting a series of protected buildings, including the Clarence itself, leaving just the facades. Revised plans will have to be submitted to Dublin City Council as the planning board directed certain changes. The massive revamp was granted permission by Dublin City Council in November but that decision was appealed. An Bord Pleanala then directed that an oral hearing take place. DEMOLITION Permission was granted despite the Department of the Environment saying it did not believe the plan was of such architectural merit as to justify the demolition of six protected buildings. The U2 band members, along with property developers Paddy McKillen and Derek Quinlan, will transform the 44-bedroom boutique hotel into a 141-bedroom, five-star hotel and spa, complete with restaurant, bar and fresh food market. During the oral hearing, The Edge, whose real name is David Evans, said: "If it goes ahead, it will be the ninth different version of a hotel on that site. We want to keep the infrastructure in the city -- we don't want it to turn into apartments. We don't want it to be lost." But the plan caused controversy as it involves a massive reconstruction of the Clarence, an art deco building dating from 1937, four Georgian buildings from the early 19th century and Dollard House, built in 1886. All are listed buildings and only the facades along Wellington Quay in the south inner city will be preserved. It is proposed to re-use skirting boards, fireplaces, floorboards and all other internal features in the new building. A huge glass atrium, which will be accessible to the public, will be at the heart of the hotel, with a skycatcher allowing light to enter the hotel. source: herald.ie
U2 top-selling act in N. America in '09 - January 1st, 2009
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- The Irish rockers U2 sold more concert tickets than any other music act in North America in 2009, Pollstar said. The group sold $123 million in tickets for their tour, The Hollywood Reporter noted. Coming in at No. 2 on the list of top draws were Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band with $94.5 million, followed by Elton John and Billy Joel's joint tour at No. 3 with $88 million, Britney Spears at No. 4 with $82.5 million and AC/DC at No. 5 with $77.9 million, the entertainment industry trade newspaper said. upi
Ten of the Best from 2009 - 31 December 2009 - We've been through our 2009 archives and come up with ten of the best from U2.com over the past year. From Edge and Eno in the studio to the YouTube broadcast of the LA show to 10million viewers... it's been quite a year. Live clips from club shows, remixed singles, rare tracks making their debut on the road... and... some space chat. Take a look below, tell us what you think... and tell us what we missed. Here's what we came up with: Brian Eno and The Edge with a song that was not on the album. Bono's Manhattan Diary on the day the album was released. Boots Gets Justice and what a great remix this turned out to be. Magnificent in Boston ...what else is there to say ? Guessing the Opening Night Set List in Barcelona ahead of the first night of U2 360° . Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol on a special night in Poland. With or Without You in Glasgow . (Everybody joined in...). The Return of Your Blue Room, at Soldier Field, Chicago. Bono and Edge Calling Space from Ground Control. Unknown Caller from the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles (Maybe you were part of the global chorus...) U2.com
Best of... the Noughties? 31 December 2009
It's December 31st 2009, the end of a decade which saw the band release three studio albums. The 'noughties' for U2 started with All That You Can't Leave Behind in 2001, then came How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb in 2004 and this year came No Line On The Horizon. Was it a http://u2.com/discography/filter/index/tagName/Singles single release that became a global hit or an obscure album track that you think most people still haven't discovered? Was it a track they've yet to play live or a song that no live show can now be complete without? Was it something they wrote which doesn't feature on one of the three studio albums? (There's a handful of tracks like this... when you come to think of it.) Your call. Tell us what was the ONE greatest piece of work the band created during the last decade... and in a couple of sentences tell us why. U2.com
HOLIDAY READING - 29 December 2009
'U2 by U2' has just been published in a new trade paperback edition in the US. 'In 1975, four teenagers from Mount Temple School in Dublin gathered in a crowded kitchen to discuss forming a band. The drum kit just about fit into the room, the lead guitarist was playing a homemade guitar, the bassist could barely play at all and nobody wanted to sing. Over thirty years later, Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr are still together, bound by intense loyalty, passionate idealism and a relentless belief in the power of rock and roll to change the world....' Browse inside 'U2 by U2' here and order it from Amazon in the US or Barnes and Noble. Guessing lots of you have read it... add your own short review below. U2.com
THIS DAY - U2´S HISTORY: U2 release "New Year´s Day" single / New Year´s Eve concert (dec 31, 1989) / Disco in the internet / Bono enjoys a Highland new year!
"New Year´s Day" - january 1, 1983 - U2 releases the "New Year's Day"/"Treasure (Whatever Happened to Pete the Chop)" single from their upcoming third album. This will become U2's first Top 10 single in the U.K. New Year's Day was the first single released from the War album. It also appeared on U2's EP and video for Under A Blood Red Sky and the Best of 1980-1990/B-sides compilation. The cover of the single features Peter Rowan who is the brother of Derek 'Guggi' Rowan. Rowan appeared on the cover of several albums and singles. Polish dissident and Solidarity union leader Lech Walesa inspired the song. New Year's Day was one of three songs from the upcoming album premiered in Glasgow on December 1, 1982 when Bono informed the crowd that the single would be available in stores on New Year's Day. However, the song ended prematurely due to feedback from Edge's amplifier. U2 played the song for the first time in Belfast on December 20th stressing that it's not a rebel song. A live version, recorded at the Rockpalast '83 concert in Lorelei, Germany on August 20, 1983 appears on the EP Under A Blood Red Sky. It was voted No. 6 in the Best Single category in the New Musical Express poll and No. 9 in the Best Single category in the Sounds poll and became U2's first top 10 single in the UK. It reached No. 53 on the Billboard charts. New Year's Day remains a popular song for other artists to sample or cover.
New Year's Eve concert - january 1, 1990 - "U2 Offers Liner Notes to 'Bootlegger' Fans - When U2 kicked off the 1990s with a New Year's Eve concert from Dublin that was broadcast live on radio throughout Europe, the band realized that thousands of those listening would have their cassette recorders operating at the same time. So, knowing they were not going to stop people from taping the concert anyway, U2 offered its fans an added bonus -- pre-printed inlay covers to use in the case around the cassettes. According to Billboard magazine, the cover listed the details of the performance and was included in the Jan. 25 issues of the European pop music magazines Q and Hot Press.- St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Discotheque hits the Internet - january 1, 1997 - A nearly full-length version of "Discotheque" appears on the Internet after being recorded from radio several weeks before radio was allowed to air the song. Radio stations are quickly told -- by U2 -- to stop playing the song illegally.
Bono enjoys a Highland new year
- January 1st, 2009 - Bono, lead singer of rock band U2, celebrated Hogmanay in the Highlands. The Irish singer, wife Ali and Danish supermodel Helena Christensen, along with family and friends, flew into Scotland for a New Year break at Ben Alder Lodge, the 26,000-acre Inverness-shire estate owned by one of the world's richest men, Swiss financier Urs Schwarzenbach. Bono's group arrived at Inverness Airport on Monday and were taken to the Dalwhinnie estate in a chauffeur-driven Mercedes minibus. The rock star, real name Paul Hewson, was seen wearing a red kilt with Miss Christensen in the bar at the Silverfjord Hotel in nearby Kingussie. Gillian Welsh, owner of the hotel, said it had taken a few minutes to realise who the superstar guests were. She said: "We couldn't believe we had such famous people in the bar. But they chatted with some of the locals, while Bono enjoyed a couple of pints of Guinness." source: theherald.co.uk - pics: thescottishsun
I wish the love and respect could be a thing which we could see in every place. I wish the respect, the acceptance and the feelings to support the others could be in each corner of the world. I wish the environment could recover the lost time and give to the Earth planet a new chance. ...I wish the humanity could meet the door to a new paradigma in this world. I wish RED campaign, ONE campaign, could reach their goal, as Music Rising. I wish the power-people could see much more the people than the material things. I wish the world could run a good way, to give to the new generations a Beautiful day (every day)!!! Thank you so much U2, for No Line On The Horizon, for 360º. Thank you so much Edge, cause you, we have the guitar on fire; thank you so much for twitter. I wish your dreams come true in 2010!!!! Big hugs to my friends!
9 Days of '09: Top 100 songs - Annual list features U2, Grizzly Bear - By Timothy Malcolm - Times Herald-Record - Posted: December 29, 2009 - 10:34 AM - It was so definite in 2008: “Time to Pretend” by MGMT was clearly the best song of the year. The dance anthem warning America's youth of fun's ills seemed to sound like a triumph, a call to arms in a year of hope and change. It was so definite. This year, not the case. Uncertainty lingered throughout 2009 – we watched a slowly bubbling economy while titans died, rain fell and politicians bickered. The hope pledged so valiantly in 2008 seemed suspended in air during 2009. And the music of the year echoed that suspension. Nobody took charge. Look no further than the holy triumvirate of statement rock. In the very same year, we heard new work by U2, Bruce Springsteen and Green Day, yet none of the three seized the day; instead, their lukewarm releases felt like little bumps in their otherwise legendary roads. So who was there to pick up the slack? Only an evolved group of hip-hop intellegentsia telling us to “DRANK!” Yes, the very thing MGMT warned us about in “Time to Pretend” came back in full force. The Black Eyed Peas – armed with two loaded cannons in “Boom Boom Pow” and “I Gotta Feeling” – swiped the Billboard charts for exactly half the year. That sort of damage hadn't been done by singles since Boyz II Men was at its apex ... 15 years ago. Surrounding the Peas was a cast of wackos. Lady Gaga crawled around us all year with megahits. Maxwell returned with a hot vengeance. Jay-Z took his 630th victory lap. Experimental gods Animal Collective turned to family values. Neko Case cooed with sizzle. And a band called Grizzly Bear sounded sweeter than all the others. These artists simply took turns holding the ball as it remained, suspended in air. Nobody took charge in 2009. We wait for the next wearers of the crown. *** Top songs of 2009 To be eligible, song must have been released for first purchase in hard copy format in the United States from Jan. 1-Dec. 31. A single released in 2009 on an album released in 2008 is not eligible. ... 7. “Moment of Surrender,” U2: It's the most subdued classic in the U2 canon. It literally sneaks up on you, taking a few minutes to build with rolling drum and bassline, before Bono kicks into the fray. His vocal is aged and wary, not the sort of euphoria we're used to with him. But that's the point – the song is about a drug user struggling with his faith, the sort of heady material we're not used to in modern music. But it's wonderfully tackled with spot-on harmonies and a searching blues solo by the Edge. A rewarding listen. ... recordonline
Music Rising co-founders Edge and Bob Ezrin's message - Go to the News section at http://musicrising.org to read a special message from Music Rising co-founders Edge and Bob Ezrin! - source: Music Rising - twitter: "Happy Holidays! As the decade comes to a close we look back with pride on the work that Music Rising has been able to accomplish with your help. Back when we began over 4 years ago (doesn't seem that long, does it?), our goal was to preserve the musical culture of the central gulf. For our first phase of operation, we provided instruments to almost 3,000 professional musicians from the region who had lost theirs in the floods. This was the simplest and quickest thing we could do at the time. But we knew then that the music there belongs to more than the folks who play for a living. It belongs to the church bands and choirs and to the school orchestras and community groups like the Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs of New Orleans. So in phases two and three we expanded to provide instruments to scores of churches and schools and then to community groups as well, affecting thousands of folks from the region by helping to keep their music alive. We've done a good job of being responsive to the needs of most of the folks that have applied for help. And we've done it with no overhead (thanks to the kind folks at the Gibson Foundation who administer the Music Rising fund). We've got some pretty exciting ideas about what to do now as we head towards the 5th anniversary of the disaster. We're working on them as we write this. But in the meanwhile, more schools apply for help and there are still churches and community groups that we have not yet been able to serve so we must keep working hard at that and we must continue to ask for your help. Your generosity and support has meant more to us than we can express - and it's helped beyond measure to put the heart back in the central gulf after Katrina and Rita had nearly ripped it away. Please stick with us. The need is still there, and we appreciate your continued support. Here's wishing all of you all a healthy, happy and fruitful new year. May all your dreams come true." Bob and Edge
$4,512 for Music Rising - December 22, 2009 - "RT @tonicnews: Thanks to everyone who spread the word & bid! The Tonic Celebrity iPod Auction raised a total of $4,512 for Music Rising!" - source: Music Rising - twitter
Epiphone Music Rising guitar on sale on the site - Epiphone Music Rising guitars (only 50 left!) will soon be up for sale on our site--each comes with signed certificate by Edge. stay tuned! - source Music Rising - twitter
THIS DAY - U2´S HISTORY: ...Forget about the past. We´re gonna celebrate the future...where the streets have no name.../ Bono talks in Sarajevo with Ali / America´s Millennium Gala!
"LoveTown" tour - december 31, 1989 - U2 perform in Dublin, Ireland, at The Point Depot for New Year's Eve 1989--it is the final show for the "Band of the 80's". As plans to air the show on television don't come together fast enough, it is decided to air the show on radio instead. Sixteen countries carry the broadcast live, and another seven carry it on tape to coincide with New Year's in their countries. "It's a great thrill for us to know that so many people from East and West Europe will be hearing the show live on New Year's Eve," Paul McGuinness explains in the papers. It is expected that the show will reach 300 million people world-wide. The show will not have commercials or a sponsor, and fans are encourage to tape the show and make their own "bootleg". U2 purchase advertising space in several magazines over the next few months for covers for the tapes. The press completely go over-the-top with their predictions for the show; everyone from Bob Dyland to Frank Sinatra is mentioned as a surprise guest. To avoid anymore rumours, Paul McGuinness calmly explains to one reporter that "B.B. King is THE special guest." Irish DJ Dave Fanning introduces the band to the world: "Alright everybody, say hello to welcome Europe to the Point Depot! Live from Dublin City, where the band who are going to play for you tonight is the band that started out in this city ten years ago and who've dominated the Eighties!" The lights fade to black and the crowd roar while "The Beatles" "All You Need" ends on the PA System. Hundreds of fans wait outside of the venue--a few minutes before midnight, security is instructed to let the fans who have been waiting in the rain for hours, inside the Point Depot. "...Three, two, ONE..," Fanning counts the last few seconds of the 1980's and then yells, "Happy New Year! Happy New Decade With U2!!!" The band step onto stage with a deafening roar and Bono sings two lines of "Auld Lang Syne" and adds, "Here she comes...the future..." Bono speakes over Edge´s guitar solo: "Happy Christmas and Happy New Year to y´all. It´s 1990. Forget about the past. We´re gonna celebrate the future...where the streets have no name..." The band tear into "Where The Streets Have No Name" and the show is underway. During "Bullet The Blue Sky", as the show isn´t broadcast to USA tonigh, Bono says: "Not tonight, it´s not. Tonight it´s the USSR; Germany, East and West; Italy; Yugoslavia; Rumania; and God knows where else they´ve got their tape recorders turned on. Well, Happy Christmas from U2 to you." Bono dedicates "Love Rescue Me" to Amnesty International.
Bono and Ali spend New Year´s Eve in Sarajevo - december 31, 1995 - Bono and wife Ali fly to Sarajevo, where they will spend a well-publicized few days celebrating the New Year holiday in the city that has been ravaged by ethnic war. Cameras follow the pair everywhere they go, and Bono often provides great photo opportunities for the media. They meet with city officials, socialize at a Sarajevo dance club, and Bono sits down for a press conference in which he discusses his visit, the 1993 live satellite reports from Bill Carter, and the story behind the song "Miss Sarajevo", among other things.
Bono sings at America´s Millenium Gala in Washington DC. december 31, 1999 - Bono attends "America's Millennium Gala" in Washington, DC at the invitation of event co-producer Quincy Jones. He performs a solo version of "One" backed by Daniel Lanois on guitar and a full orchestra. Prior to the outdoor show, he and the Hewson family go through a reception line to greet President Clinton and his family. The White House speaker introduces him as "Mr. Bono."
UPDATE - DECEMBER 30 - THIS DAY - U2´S HISTORY: "...The guitar player of his generation: The Edge!" / "...We have to go away and just dream it all up again" / It's announced that Adam is in Brazil!
"LoveTown" tour - december 30, 1989 - Dublin / Ireland - The Point Depot. After two days off, the local papers report that the band are breaking up, and the news is carried around the world in a matter of days. The band take two days off(the concert for the 29th is cancelled so that Bono could rest his voice), and the third show is considered one of the best performances U2 has given in Ireland. After "I Will Follow", Bono mocks himself: "Anything you want me to give out about? Sellafield? That's about 60 miles from here...It's a lot further to Margaret Thatcher's house..." Bono asks for silence before singing "Running to Stand Still" and adds a verse of "Dirty Old Town". "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is dedicated to the Birmingham Six, the six Irishmen imprisoned for IRA crimes they didn't commit. During the guitar solo in "Out Of Control" Bono raps in admiration: "Check out the boots! Check out the pants! The hairdo! The guitar player of his generation: The Edge!" The encore has the band premiering "She's a Mystery To Me", a song written (Bono and Edge) for Roy Orbison, and recorded in 1987 at Sun Studios (this version has never been released). During "Love Rescue Me", Bono comments on the past four month "LoveTown" tour: "We've had a lot of fun, just getting to know the kind of music that we didn't know so much about. I was explaining to people the other night, but I might have gotten it a bit wrong, that this is just the end of something for U2...and that's why we're playing these concerts. We're throwing a party for ourselves and for you. It's no big deal. We have to go away and just dream it all up again." The second encore on the evening sees the band playing "11 O'Clock Tick Tock" for the first time since December 12, 1987. Support is B.B. King.
It's announced that Adam is in Brazil - December 30, 2008
According to glamurama.uol.com.br, Adam is in Brazil, in Bahia, at Trancoso. He said, after to record No Line On The Horizon: "These holidays here, were exactly what I needed. This is the first time I visit Brazil out off tour." Is reported that Adam won't visit another city; he will stay just in this city. I know very well this place. I stayed many times there. It's so beautiful. It seems Carla Bruni and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are around there.
Play On - Sunday, 20 December 2009 18:11 Jonathan Yip - Music, politics, and celebrity in the age of Bono ... The tour and band's politics have been stretched so thin it is hard to perceive U2's message as anything more than "doing good." U2, for better or worse, has become diluted beyond recognition, standing only for stardom and righteousness. Perhaps the formula for everlasting relevance is to shed all irony and embrace star power. Bono has developed the perfect celebrity persona for our age: political, passionate, and pervasive. We all want to be a hero and rock star at once: U2 puts us on the stage. hpronline - numbview
U2's 'One' Tops Fanning's Fab 50 - 21 Dec 2009
U2 have yet again claimed first place in Fanning’s Fab 50 on RTÉ 2fm, with the extraordinary 'One' – which first appeared on the Achtung Baby album, and has since gone on to become U2's most popular and enduring song. Broadcasting last night, Sunday 20 December, on RTÉ 2fm, Dave Fanning handled the countdown, which saw 'One' fight off competition from the likes of Kings of Leon’s 'Sex On Fire', Led Zeppelin’s 'Stairway to Heaven' and The Killers 'Mr Brightside' for the best single off all time title. RTÉ 2fm’s listeners voted in their droves for Ireland’s most famous band, with U2 claiming three of the top ten places with 'One', 'Bad' and 'With Or Without You'. A further two tracks featured in the top fifty, with 'Magnificent' and 'Where The Streets Have No Name'. Now in its 29th year, Fanning’s Fab 50 is not just promoted through Dave Fanning’s show: an RTE spokesperson described it as "RTÉ 2fm’s alternative music poll, mixing the hottest new acts with classic rock and indie tunes." Fanning’s Fab 50 has, of course, been virtually synonymous with U2, a variety of their tracks having picked up the title over the years. “U2 have always dominated Fanning’s Fab 50," Dave Fanning says, "and over the past few years 'One' in particular has been topping the charts. I’ve seen them been challenged by the likes of Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, The Smiths and Radiohead among others – but, regardless, U2 are always there or thereabouts. Every year the top ten has featured numerous U2 tracks, especially since the release of Achtung Baby – so it’s great to see that their following in Ireland is as strong as ever.” Other winners included The Smiths 'Sooner Than Now' (1984), Nirvana’s 'Smells like Teen Spirit' (1991) and Radiohead’s 'Creep' (1993). But this year, it's a case of 'business as usual' for U2...hotpress
Music Rising received over $1 million from the download: U2 & Green Day "The Saints Are Coming" - "Thanks to everyone who downloaded U2 & Green Day's cover, "The Saints Are Coming." We received over $1 million to be used for our programs! " source: Music Rising - Twitter
THIS DAY - U2´S HISTORY: ADAM IS SAFE / Bono at radio / A beautiful payday of €21m for U2!
"ADAM CLAYTON IS SAFE..." - december 28, 2004 - Search on for Irish in aftermath of chaos - Dublin officials get 1,000 calls from relatives - 28 December 2004 - EFFORTS were under way today to track down Irish holidaymakers still missing in the aftermath of the tidal wave disaster that has claimed more than 23,000 lives across south Asia. Dozens of Irish people are reported missing in the devastated holiday resort of Phuket, Thailand, among them two women who are presumed drowned. However, reports that rock star Adam Clayton was stranded amid the chaos in southern Asia have been denied. The U2 bass guitarist is on holiday in Thailand but friends said he was safe. A close friend of the band confirmed that the rock star had been enjoying a break well away from the ravaged areas and was not in any danger. "He is enjoying a break before the new tour gets under way but has not been close to the affected areas and hasn't been in any danger at any time," he said.
"Bono takes a turn at radio news" - december 28, 2004. Bono is the guest producer today on BBC Radio Four's Today news show. Poverty is the theme of Bono's news coverage, which includes interviews with UK Chancellor Gordon Brown and former President Bill Clinton.
A beautiful payday of €21m for U2 - December 28, 2009 - Bono and his fellow U2 members have enjoyed a beautiful payday, netting €21 million from one of the band's main companies. The ''employees'' of U2 Ltd - understood to be the four band members and manager Paul McGuinness - received wages of €21.1 million for 2007, on top of €18 million in 2006. Their 2008 take-home pay from the company, which licenses U2's intellectual property, is likely to be in line with those figures. The higher pay in 2007 came despite a fall-off in operating profits at U2 Ltd to €1.1 million, compared with €5.4 million in 2006. The company accumulated profits of €3.3 million and paid corporation tax of €280,000 in Ireland last year. None of the band members are on the board of U2 Ltd, whose three directors include Dutch lawyer Gerritte Spenke, who has written a book called Taxation in the Netherlands. The other directors are Dutch accountant Jan Favie and Irish accountant Gaby Smith. The directors of the firm received remuneration of €72,000 last year. U2 are wrapping up the recording of their 12th studio album, No Line On The Horizon, which will be released on March 2. It was recorded in Morocco, Dublin, New York and London. thepost.ie
(Bono and Ali were at the races: Leopardstown Races-December 26, 2009- / U2 are working to a future new album / Paul McGuinness says it will be released in June 2010)
- U2 make fans' Christmas as they reveal plans for their next album - The biggest band in the world is planning a release by June before taking to the road on tour, writes Niamh Horan - Sunday December 27 2009 - IRISH rockers U2 have delivered a late Christmas present to their loyal fans this weekend by promising to release a new album by June. Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Independent at Leopardstown Races yesterday, U2 frontman Bono revealed the band had been working hard on new material in the run-up to Christmas and are hoping to have a new chart-topping album on shelves before the summer. Speaking about the upcoming release, Bono described how the band had been putting in the hard work in the studio in recent weeks: "We are working away and we have a couple of yearlings in the stables that could really turn out to be thoroughbreds in the future," he said. "As a band you are always trying to work on new material and we had some unfinished material from the last album. "I would love to elaborate a bit more but unfortunately it is a democracy -- and sure isn't that the world that we live in?" One person who had no problem elaborating, however, was U2 manager Paul McGuinness. The legendary music mogul described how the world's biggest rock group are confident of having the album released by June. "I have heard some of the stuff the guys have played and, yeah, it is great. Bono is always an optimist but he seems confident of getting a new record out by the end of the next six months. They're talking about June. By that time we will be ready to go back on tour and I think that will give it a different flavour." Mr McGuinness also described how sales of concert tickets "have been incredible" for the band -- despite the current recession. "Most of the shows left are either sold out or close to being sold out, which is terrific. We're defying gravity at this stage -- it's incredible." He also took some time out to offer his support to bassist Adam Clayton following reports last week that he is involved in a court case with his former housekeeper who has allegedly misappropriated €1.8m. "It is very upsetting for him, especially because it is someone that he trusted and let into his life and his home. I didn't council him or advise him or anything like that. "For Adam to discover that someone he had trusted had let him down like that. . . well, it is disappointing. "I suppose though that is life and it could happen to anyone. But I can't really say too much about it because of the legality of it but that the courts are dealing with it." Meanwhile, speaking about his time off over Christmas, Bono said: "We have had a really great Christmas, very homely and lovely and we had a great time. In fact, we have just had the most amazing year." The Irish rocker was continuing what has become an annual tradition for him an his pals, by spending St Stephen's Day at Leopardstown races with his wife Ali. "I did have one bet today but it was more of a sentimental flutter for the year that is ahead of U2. "I put some money on a horse called Happy Reunion but unfortunately it was no good so I can only hope that we will have a bit more success." Also at the races was Dublin publican Charlie Chawke, racing magnate JP McManus, horse trainer Dermot Weld, betting boss Paddy Power, Robbie Fox, Johnny Ronan and Guggi. Over 14,500 people attended the races, while the Tote brought in €404,752 on the day. Sunday Independent - PICS:rexfeatures
Artificial Horizon comes 15 years after the band’s last fanclub-only remix album Melon: Remixes for Propaganda, which featured Paul Oakenfold, Steve Osbourne and Massive Attack reworking tracks off Achtung Baby and Zooropa. U2 Announce New Remix Album Exclusively for Fan Club Members - 12/24/09, 9:02 am EST
U2 will release an album of remixes, dubbed Artificial Horizon, to members of their fan club in late January 2010, according to the band’s official Website. While the track list hasn’t been revealed in full, U2 promise that Trent Reznor’s version of “Vertigo,” producer Jacknife Lee’s “Fast Cars” remix and David Holmes’ take on “Beautiful Day” will be among Artificial Horizon’s 13 songs, which span from the Grand Jury Mix of ”If God Will Send His Angels” in 1997 to the Fish Out Of Water mix of “Get On Your Boots.” U2's 360º Tour: photos of the band's opening night. Artificial Horizon comes 15 years after the band’s last fanclub-only remix album Melon: Remixes for Propaganda, which featured Paul Oakenfold, Steve Osbourne and Massive Attack reworking tracks off Achtung Baby and Zooropa. Previous U2 fan club-only releases include 2009’s B side compilation Medium, Rare & Remastered, 2005’s live disc U2.COMmunication and 2006’s Zoo TV Live. Look back at three decades of U2, onstage and off. Fan club members also get first dibs on the band’s concert tickets through a special pre-sale, and considering that U2 — one of Rollings Stone's Artists of the Decade — have already begun mapping out the 2010 dates for their massive 360° Tour, joining the fan club might be a good $50 investment to help score tickets to the stadium shows. rollingstones
Dusting ‘Em Off: U2 - Three - By Joe Marvilli on December 26th, 2009
This is where it all began. 30 years ago this past September, four Irish teenagers — Bono Vox, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen, Jr. — recorded three songs in Windmill Lane Studios for their first official release. Titled Three and sold exclusively in Ireland under CBS Records, the EP represented the first step on the path of success for U2. By this point, U2 had already been together for three years and were steadily building a reputation in Ireland. It seemed like they were set to take off when the band won a talent contest in 1978 that offered a prize of studio time to record a demo. Unfortunately, when the session began, no one in the band knew what the hell they were doing. Edge put his guitar at an incredibly low volume, Bono had adopted an awful English accent, and a young Larry Mullen, Jr. was pulled out of the studio by his father because he had exams the next day. While it was a squandered opportunity, U2 luckily got another chance a year later. This time around, they were a little more prepared. During the interim year, the group landed Paul McGuinness as their manager, gained support from Hot Press Magazine, and opened for punk rockers The Stranglers. They caught the attention of an A & R scout from CBS London named Chas De Whalley, who came in with demo money and produced the EP despite a lack of experience. Although the band still wasn’t playing very well, the songs they wrote were strong enough to support their weaknesses. “Out of Control” was chosen as the A-side for the EP by listeners on the Dave Fanning Rock Show on RTE station. Almost as soon as the track starts, it has “U2 anthem” written all over it. By this point, Edge had gotten his Memory Man Echo Unit and had started to develop his trademark sound. In this case, it really makes the song since the rest of the band were still finding their feet. Mullen, Jr, had trouble playing in time, Clayton’s bass was extremely simple, and Bono… well, let’s just say his singing voice wasn’t all that yet. But the song has a real kick to it and a boundless amount of energy that feels contagious. Bono’s lyrical exploration was already moving in an introspective direction. Written on his 18th birthday, he said the song was about hitting that age and “realizing… the two most important decisions in your life have nothing to do with you — being born and dying.” “Stories for Boys” has more of a groove to it than the A-side. Containing a fully expressed sense of excitement, the song deals with escapism from the everyday. While not fully developed, it technically shows more promise than either of the other two songs. Whereas “Out of Control” feels mostly like Edge was in charge, “Stories for Boys” is the sound of the band clicking and playing as a cohesive unit. “Boy-Girl” is the least memorable track on the EP. Dealing with the relationship between (no surprise here) a boy and a girl who are maturing into adults, the song is more like a rough sketch than a fully thought out track. The lyrics don’t go anywhere and the instrumentation is just average at best. It’s not shocking that when U2 were re-recording songs for their first album, Boy, it was the only one out of the three to not make the cut. Limited to 1,000 copies for Ireland, the EP made a surprising splash in the Irish Singles Charts, peaking at number 19. Sadly, CBS UK passed on U2, only offering a record deal if they fired Larry Mullen, Jr. The drummer was still having trouble playing in time but the rest of the band stuck by him. The EP did help them increase their fanbase in their home country even more and was followed by a tour in England. The resulting success of that tour led to a deal with Island Records. The rest is history. Even though the music isn’t really there, the potential of U2 can be heard in all three songs. Well… okay, not “”Boy-Girl”. But “Out of Control” and “Stories for Boys” would go on to be very good album cuts for their debut in 1980. “Out of Control” has been an occasional part of the band’s set list, all the way up to this decade. The sound made on Three isn’t that of one of the world’s biggest bands. It’s the sound of a group that had endless enthusiasm for their music and knew success was within reach. Check Out:
7th Ward Santa Claus has been bringing children hope for generations
Children with doubts about whether the 7th Ward Santa Claus is real are invited to 'pull this beard off my face,' he said. He was photographed Wednesday with Jelthroe Moses, 3. For many families, the Christmas season is marked by the annual pilgrimage to the 7th Ward to see Santa Claus. ... Other requests aren’t found in catalogs. Like the girl who asked for her parents to get back together. Or the little boy last week, who asked Santa for world peace. “I’m tired of people killing each other,” he said to Santa, who choked up for a moment, then gently changed the subject. “I couldn’t promise him that,” Santa said, but he will never give a child a negative answer. Katy Reckdahl can be reached at kreckdahl@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3396-nola
THIS DAY - U2´S HISTORY: During "Love Rescue Me", Bono gives the first hint at the future of the band: "I suppose this is a kind of going away party, because I think that's what we gotta do. We've had a great ten years. We're just throwing a party for ourselves and you, and for the poeple that worked with us and those that believed in us along the way. We got to do something else the next while, just got to go away for a little bit..."
"LoveTown" tour - december 27, 1989 - U2 perform in Dublin, Ireland, at The Point Depot. The second show is much more light-hearted--the band and the crowd are over their nervousness and the tension from the media spotlight cast on the concerts. Bono jokes with the crowd, "It's great to be back in...uh...uhmmm..." "DUBLIN!" the crowd roar back. At the end of "Running to Stand Still", Bono adds a verse of "Dirty Old Town" He also comments on Irish emigration to the United States, which has increased in the past few years: "Everybody wants to live in America. No me...I love this city. I hate what some of those bastards have done to it: boring, unimaginative politicians, the arrogant architects, the back handed builders...Let them go to fucking America!" Maria McKee, former lead vocalist of "Lone Justice" joins the band for "People Get Ready"--McKee is now a resident of Dublin, and Bono claims her as his "second wife". "The queue for the third starts outside...," he jokes. During "Love Rescue Me", Bono gives the first hint at the future of the band: "I suppose this is a kind of going away party, because I think that's what we gotta do. We've had a great ten years. We're just throwing a party for ourselves and you, and for the poeple that worked with us and those that believed in us along the way. We got to do something else the next while, just got to go away for a little bit..." The next day the local papers report that the band are breaking up, and the news is carried around the world in a matter of days. Also played on this night is "Two Hearts Beat As One", along with a line from Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean". The song hasn't been played since April 29, 1985. Support is B.B. King.
U2's Official site
01/01/2010 a 15/01/2010
Another time, another place...cause the space here are almost full up, please, click the link below, and visit the new blog dedicated to The Edge and U2. It´s in construction, but you´re able to be connected on what´s going on today and in the history of U2: 
It Might Get Loud, the movie featuring Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White, got its first Irish airing last night at the 
The Irish Film Institute in Dublin's Temple Bar was the location for a 
A long icicle hangs from the fountain at Jackson Square early Friday morning. At 8 a.m. the temperature was at freezing in the French Quarter. A combination of below-freezing temperatures and brisk northerly winds will make it feel like 13 degrees or lower for much of tonight and into early Saturday morning, according to the National Weather Service. ... 
U2's Edge will introduce a special preview charity screening of Davis Guggenheim's film It Might Get Loud, on Thursday 7th January. All proceeds go to 
NEW ORLEANS -- The city of New Orleans announced Thursday that it will host memorial activities this month to honor the life of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In a news release, city officials said the theme of the events will be titled "Everybody Can Be Great, Because Everybody Can Serve." The schedule of events is as follows: ... 
Bill Gates talked about how this was his last CES keynote, and his last year at Microsoft. For the first time since he was 17, he won't be a Microsoft employee. He showed a video package of how his last day might go, working out with Matthew McConaughey, producing an album with Jay-Z, asking Hillary Clinton if he can be her Vice President, asking Bono if he can be the new guitarist for U2 ... Bill Gates: live at his 12th and final CES keynote ... 6:46PM PT - Bono: "Yeah, Bill, I'm a little busy here!" Bill's playing Guitar Hero II. "Bill, we've talked about this before. We're full up in the band. All positions are filled. I know... I know... I can't just replace Edge because you got a high score on Guitar Hero." "Bill's always had a passion for music... and as long as it's not my music, I'm fine with that." ...
Just beautiful these seconds with a sound, very very familiar: 
January 6 is the Twelfth Day of Christmas - the end of the holiday - celebrated as the Feast of the Epiphany on the Christian calendar, but better known as Three Kings Day in Latin countries and many U.S. cities. The feast commemorates the day on which, according to the Bible, the Three Kings visited the infant Jesus, bearing gifts of tribute. In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg will be among the many marching Tuesday in the annual Three Kings Day - Los Tres Reyes - parade. Celebrations on a smaller scale are also being held in Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia. In many Spanish-speaking countries, Three Kings Day is the big feast - bigger than Christmas Day. On January 5th, children put their shoes out on balconies, terraces, windowsills and terraces, waiting for the Three Kings to ride by - like Santa Claus coming down the chimney - and leave them presents. It's also customary to leave a bottle of wine and cakes for the Kings. Just as with Santa Claus, children write letters to the magi (the Kings) asking for gifts which are left for them on Jan. 6. In Madrid Monday, thousands of children and adults crowded the streets of Madrid in a flurry of sweets, confetti and soap bubbles to greet locals costumed as the three wise men in one of dozens of Epiphany feast parades held across Spain. The kings' carriages - opulently decked out in palm fronds, glitter and lights - paraded from Madrid's Retiro park along the city's boulevards toward the central Plaza Mayor square, in what is traditionally the biggest of the annual processions. Dozens of other floats featured storybook characters such as Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz, giant flowers and animals. Children and adults - many in fancy dress costume - showered sweets over expectant onlookers bunched along the sidewalks. Musical bands, dancers, camels laden with parcels, horses and elephants accompanied the floats. Gospel singers and a brass band welcomed the kings - Gaspar, Melchior and Balthasar - onto the Plaza Mayor. In the annual message to the children of the city, Melchior, played by a local politician, promised all presents would be delivered during the night. He also reminded children of the greatest gifts - love, peace and justice - and urged them to work to create an open and egalitarian society in their city. In the northern port of Gijon, the Magi arrived by boat. In the city of Vitoria, the kings, mindful of diabetic children, handed out sugar-free candy, while in the southern city of Seville, floats showered 90 tons of sweets onto streets filled with revelers, Spain's national news agency reported.
The Edge from U2 has claimed he doesn't like playing guitar with other guitarists. U2 guitarist The Edge has said he hates jamming. The 48-year-old musician - real name David Howell Evans - claims that he tries to "avoid" situations where he has to play with other guitarists. He said: "Jamming is really the most awful, excruciating experience for me, I really don't enjoy it. "First of all that's not how I work as a guitar player. I compose using the instrument, I don't really site down and play for the sake of playing stuff." Discussing U2's latest album 'No Line On The Horizon', which sold four million copies, David suggested that it wasn't well received because the songs were not "really radio friendly". He added to the Daily Telegraph newspaper: "Even 'Get On Your Boots', which is high octane, its not a slam dunk of a hit song. I think everyone has just got caught up in the plan as opposed to sitting back and thinking about the record we'd made. But I feel ok about it." 
(Krist Novoselic defends Bono and calls those who ridiculed U2's lead singer a lynch mob)
(Bono wants ISPs to do more to protect content creators) - Krist Novoselic, Nirvana co-founder and bassist, on Tuesday jumped into the white-hot online-piracy debate on the side of copyright owners and U2 frontman Bono. "I love Twitter, and it's disappointing to see the service manifest itself as a lynch mob," Novoselic wrote in blog post titled "Why I agree with Bono" that appeared on the site of alternative newspaper Seattle Weekly. "Bono is the latest in a line of good people who get trashed in the continuing file-sharing controversy." Novoselic is referring to an op-ed piece by Bono that appeared in The New York Times over the weekend. Bono came out strong against file sharing and blasted Internet service providers such as AT&T, Comcast, and Cox Communications for allegedly looking the other way as unauthorized music and film files pour through their pipes. On Monday, Bono's name appeared twice among the 10 top Twitter trends as angry Twitter users ridiculed U2's lead singer. Novoselic joined late rock legend Kurt Cobain to form Nirvana, a lineup that eventually included Dave Grohl, now of the Foo Fighters. Novoselic writes what appears to be a regular blog for Seattle Weekly. Novoselic argues that businesses, including Web services, can't sustain themselves for very long without being compensated for content. The lack of profits will then discourage investment. "Content needs to be worth something, if anybody is going to care about it," Novoselic wrote. "Free content will ultimately resemble, well, free content. Look at it from a venture capitalist's perspective: Somebody bet big bucks on a film like 'Avatar.' They invested many millions [of dollars] to develop cutting-edge motion picture technology that would dazzle enough people to make their money back and then some. "Now imagine 'Avatar' in context of the YouTube model," he continued, "a shaky camcorder with handheld G.I. Joe and Barbie dolls. Which would you pay for?" 
'It Might Get Loud' is released to European audiences this week and Edge has been talking to The Times newspaper in the UK. 'What came out of the movie,' he says, 'was that it doesn't matter what your influences are, it's whether you are an originator. It's about attempting to express the sound in your head you can't otherwise explain.' Read the whole piece 
IF we have overindulged in anything these past several days, it is neither holiday ham nor American football; it is Top 10 lists. We have been stuffed full of them. Even in these self-restrained pages, it has been impossible to avoid the end-of-the-decade accountings of the 10 best such-and-suches and the 10 worst fill-in-the-blanks. And so, in the spirit of rock star excess, I offer yet another. The main difference, if it matters, is that this list looks forward, not backward. So here, then, are 10 ideas that might make the next 10 years more interesting, healthy or civil. Some are trivial, some fundamental. They have little in common with one another except that I am seized by each, and moved by its potential to change our world. ... A Person (Dr. William Li) and a Word (Angiogenesis);Angiogenesis is the process by which new blood vessels grow. This is good — except when it’s very bad, as in the case of cancerous tumors. Blood vessels are their supply lines. Dr. William Li of the Angiogenesis Foundation has called research in this realm the “first medical revolution of the 21st century,” and he should know. (I shouldn’t, given my lack of a medical pedigree, but I learned about it from my bandmate the Edge, who supports Dr. Li’s foundation.) Work on angiogenesis inhibitors is at the vanguard. In a world worrying about whether it can afford health care, advances in prevention are at a premium. Factoid: Cancers start as tiny nests of malignant cells that do not enlarge until they recruit new vessels to deliver oxygen and nutrients; then a cancer can expand 16,000 times in only two weeks. ... 
(King cake) The 2010 Mardi Gras season is upon us! Wednesday, January 6 marks "Twelfth Night" with music, parades and of course, King Cake. In the Clubs this week, Leah Chase sings at Snug, the lovely ladies of Fleur de Tease help to start the New Year right and DJ Soul Sister spins her own version of "80s Night" at One Eyed Jacks, Anders Osborne rocks Tipitina's, New York's Dharma Bums play d.b.a. and Meschiya Lake continues to swing at the Spotted Cat. Also, food rock-star Anthony Bourdain talks all things edible at the Mahalia andthe Museum of the American Cocktail shows us the garden is for more than simply cooking ... 
ABC and ESPN score premiere of U2 music video. U2's new video for "All Because Of You" -- shot six weeks ago on the streets of New York -- makes it world premiere tonight on ABC-TV when an edited version of the video airs at halftime of the Orange Bowl college football championship game. The full version airs later in the evening on ESPN's "Sportscenter" program. In both cases, the clip has highlights from the football game edited into it. The 
According to this article at 
The name on his passport says Dave Evans but the rest of the world knows him as The Edge, the moniker handed to him by a young Bono Vox in U2’s early days in Seventies Dublin. Polite and self-effacing, the guitarist is a self-confessed “music obsessive” who finishes our interview asking what new bands he should catch up on. His status presents many opportunities, not least the chance to work and play with his musical heroes. At the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 25th anniversary concert in October he accompanied Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, Black Eyed Peas and Patti Smith. “That was amazing,” he recalls. “You don’t get many opportunities to play with artists of that calibre in your life.” Actually, he gets more than most, as evidenced by his starring role alongside Jimmy Page and Jack White in the big-screen rockumentary It Might Get Loud. A guitar fan’s wet dream, it traces the threesome’s differing approaches to their art before bringing them together to jam.“What came out of the movie,” he says, “was that it doesn’t matter what your influences are, it’s whether you are an originator. It’s about attempting to express the sound in your head you can’t otherwise explain.” ...guitarists: Jimmy Page An utter gentleman. I found him as I hoped, great company. He came from the blues whereas we started U2 as a reaction against all of that. Jack White (of the White Stripes) It’s early days for Jack in a sense but you can already hear the multitude of Jack Whites out there. That’s an indicator to his influence. Keith Richards You know when something still sounds as luminous and bright as it did the day it was coined? The riff to Satisfaction is like that. It crystallised a moment in time but it has a power that is undeniable. Tom Verlaine & Richard Lloyd (of Television) Television were a huge influence at the time. The composition of Marquee Moon changed my way of thinking about the guitar. It made me challenge myself. It wasn’t so much “I want to sound like them” but “What can I do?” Nick Zinner (of Yeah Yeah Yeahs) He has a really potent but minimal style. That was something we took from the nihilism of the punk era, maximum effect from minimal input, something I try to retain. ...Glastonbury: By the time Glastonbury hit its stride we were doing our own thing. It didn’t seem right for us then. It feels like we really have to do it because if we don’t do it now, we never will. I’m obviously familiar with the festival’s ideal but I’ve never experienced it. I used to be sceptical of its roots, the hippy thing. I’m going along to check it out as much as anything but I have a good feeling about it. I’d like to hope we can make our mark. ...musicals: Spider-Man I’ve been working on this with Bono for a while and it’s probably going to happen in the spring. It’s not a straight rock musical, there’s other stuff going on. Opera would be the closest reference. Writing character-led songs was a really fresh challenge and we’re very excited about it. There’s some fantastic music in there. West Side Story I’m a fan of the great musicals but there’s plenty of poor ones because they can be as ripe with clichés as any rock’n’roll. West Side Story however is undeniably brilliant and highly original. Oliver! As a kid, one of the first records I got as a Christmas gift was Oliver!, which had some marvellous tunes. I met Lionel Bart later on and he turned out to be a sweet man. Tommy The original rock opera. A really original story matched with some huge songs. It set a new benchmark at the time. Cabaret I’ve seen it performed on stage and as a movie, and it’s wonderful. I love the dark Weimar thing. ...the 360 degree tour: Working with 'The Claw’ [the tour’s futuristic stage set] has been a challenge, but after a while we started to get into it. The fact there are four of us means we can spread out across the stage and come back together. It reinforces the band thing. It was almost a conscious decision to get into a huddle and play for each other as much as for the audience. ...Bono: In my opinion he’s the best frontman of any band, a great performer and lyricist. I’ve never doubted I had the best singer of his generation in the band. His politics is very much an extension of the band ethos. We’ve always supported the things we believe in. He took it to a new level by getting inside those things. I think there’s a compromise there that I personally don’t want to be involved in. I don’t want to be in the meetings. In my opinion, the artist has a duty to maintain an idealistic view of the world. Bono is one of those people who can see it from all angles without compromising himself as an artist. I’m amazed by that. 
Although many U.S. communities have levees, New Orleans' near-total reliance on them is unusual, according to Gerald Galloway, a research engineer at the University of Maryland. The Lake Pontchartrain levee in Metairie was photographed in June.Most Americans live in counties that are at least partially protected by earthen and concrete levees, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency statistics obtained by the New Orleans-based group Levees.org.... 
"FOR BONO: VISION OVER VISIBILITY"
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- The Irish rockers U2 sold more concert tickets than any other music act in North America in 2009, Pollstar said. The group sold $123 million in tickets for their tour, The Hollywood Reporter noted. Coming in at No. 2 on the list of top draws were Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band with $94.5 million, followed by Elton John and Billy Joel's joint tour at No. 3 with $88 million, Britney Spears at No. 4 with $82.5 million and AC/DC at No. 5 with $77.9 million, the entertainment industry trade newspaper said. 
It's December 31st 2009, the end of a decade which saw the band release three studio albums. The 'noughties' for U2 started with 
'U2 by U2' has just been published in a new trade paperback edition in the US. 'In 1975, four teenagers from Mount Temple School in Dublin gathered in a crowded kitchen to discuss forming a band. The drum kit just about fit into the room, the lead guitarist was playing a homemade guitar, the bassist could barely play at all and nobody wanted to sing. Over thirty years later, Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr are still together, bound by intense loyalty, passionate idealism and a relentless belief in the power of rock and roll to change the world....' Browse inside 'U2 by U2' 
- January 1st, 2009 - Bono, lead singer of rock band U2, celebrated Hogmanay in the Highlands. The Irish singer, wife Ali and Danish supermodel Helena Christensen, along with family and friends, flew into Scotland for a New Year break at Ben Alder Lodge, the 26,000-acre Inverness-shire estate owned by one of the world's richest men, Swiss financier Urs Schwarzenbach. Bono's group arrived at Inverness Airport on Monday and were taken to the Dalwhinnie estate in a chauffeur-driven Mercedes minibus. The rock star, real name Paul Hewson, was seen wearing a red kilt with Miss Christensen in the bar at the Silverfjord Hotel in nearby Kingussie. Gillian Welsh, owner of the hotel, said it had taken a few minutes to realise who the superstar guests were. She said: "We couldn't believe we had such famous people in the bar. But they chatted with some of the locals, while Bono enjoyed a couple of pints of Guinness." 
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I know very well this place. I stayed many times there. It's so 
HAPPY (11st) BIRTHDAY ENZO! 
U2 have yet again claimed first place in Fanning’s Fab 50 on RTÉ 2fm, with the extraordinary 'One' – which first appeared on the Achtung Baby album, and has since gone on to become U2's most popular and enduring song. Broadcasting last night, Sunday 20 December, on RTÉ 2fm, Dave Fanning handled the countdown, which saw 'One' fight off competition from the likes of Kings of Leon’s 'Sex On Fire', Led Zeppelin’s 'Stairway to Heaven' and The Killers 'Mr Brightside' for the best single off all time title. RTÉ 2fm’s listeners voted in their droves for Ireland’s most famous band, with U2 claiming three of the top ten places with 'One', 'Bad' and 'With Or Without You'. A further two tracks featured in the top fifty, with 'Magnificent' and 'Where The Streets Have No Name'. Now in its 29th year, Fanning’s Fab 50 is not just promoted through Dave Fanning’s show: an RTE spokesperson described it as "RTÉ 2fm’s alternative music poll, mixing the hottest new acts with classic rock and indie tunes." Fanning’s Fab 50 has, of course, been virtually synonymous with U2, a variety of their tracks having picked up the title over the years. “U2 have always dominated Fanning’s Fab 50," Dave Fanning says, "and over the past few years 'One' in particular has been topping the charts. I’ve seen them been challenged by the likes of Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, The Smiths and Radiohead among others – but, regardless, U2 are always there or thereabouts. Every year the top ten has featured numerous U2 tracks, especially since the release of Achtung Baby – so it’s great to see that their following in Ireland is as strong as ever.” Other winners included The Smiths 'Sooner Than Now' (1984), Nirvana’s 'Smells like Teen Spirit' (1991) and Radiohead’s 'Creep' (1993). But this year, it's a case of 'business as usual' for U2...
- U2 make fans' Christmas as they reveal plans for their next album - The biggest band in the world is planning a release by June before taking to the road on tour, writes Niamh Horan - Sunday December 27 2009 - IRISH rockers U2 have delivered a late Christmas present to their loyal fans this weekend by promising to release a new album by June. Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Independent at Leopardstown Races yesterday, U2 frontman Bono revealed the band had been working hard on new material in the run-up to Christmas and are hoping to have a new chart-topping album on shelves before the summer. Speaking about the upcoming release, Bono described how the band had been putting in the hard work in the studio in recent weeks: "We are working away and we have a couple of yearlings in the stables that could really turn out to be thoroughbreds in the future," he said. "As a band you are always trying to work on new material and we had some unfinished material from the last album. "I would love to elaborate a bit more but unfortunately it is a democracy -- and sure isn't that the world that we live in?" One person who had no problem elaborating, however, was U2 manager Paul McGuinness. The legendary music mogul described how the world's biggest rock group are confident of having the album released by June. "I have heard some of the stuff the guys have played and, yeah, it is great. Bono is always an optimist but he seems confident of getting a new record out by the end of the next six months. They're talking about June. By that time we will be ready to go back on tour and I think that will give it a different flavour." Mr McGuinness also described how sales of concert tickets "have been incredible" for the band -- despite the current recession. "Most of the shows left are either sold out or close to being sold out, which is terrific. We're defying gravity at this stage -- it's incredible." He also took some time out to offer his support to bassist Adam Clayton following reports last week that he is involved in a court case with his former housekeeper who has allegedly misappropriated €1.8m. "It is very upsetting for him, especially because it is someone that he trusted and let into his life and his home. I didn't council him or advise him or anything like that. "For Adam to discover that someone he had trusted had let him down like that. . . well, it is disappointing. "I suppose though that is life and it could happen to anyone. But I can't really say too much about it because of the legality of it but that the courts are dealing with it." Meanwhile, speaking about his time off over Christmas, Bono said: "We have had a really great Christmas, very homely and lovely and we had a great time. In fact, we have just had the most amazing year." The Irish rocker was continuing what has become an annual tradition for him an his pals, by spending St Stephen's Day at Leopardstown races with his wife Ali. "I did have one bet today but it was more of a sentimental flutter for the year that is ahead of U2. "I put some money on a horse called Happy Reunion but unfortunately it was no good so I can only hope that we will have a bit more success." Also at the races was Dublin publican Charlie Chawke, racing magnate JP McManus, horse trainer Dermot Weld, betting boss Paddy Power, Robbie Fox, Johnny Ronan and Guggi. Over 14,500 people attended the races, while the Tote brought in €404,752 on the day. 
U2 will release an album of remixes, dubbed Artificial Horizon, to members of their fan club in late January 2010, according to the band’s 
This is where it all began. 30 years ago this past September, four Irish teenagers — Bono Vox, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen, Jr. — recorded three songs in Windmill Lane Studios for their first official release. Titled Three and sold exclusively in Ireland under CBS Records, the EP represented the first step on the path of success for U2. By this point, U2 had already been together for three years and were steadily building a reputation in Ireland. It seemed like they were set to take off when the band won a talent contest in 1978 that offered a prize of studio time to record a demo. Unfortunately, when the session began, no one in the band knew what the hell they were doing. Edge put his guitar at an incredibly low volume, Bono had adopted an awful English accent, and a young Larry Mullen, Jr. was pulled out of the studio by his father because he had exams the next day. While it was a squandered opportunity, U2 luckily got another chance a year later. This time around, they were a little more prepared. During the interim year, the group landed Paul McGuinness as their manager, gained support from Hot Press Magazine, and opened for punk rockers The Stranglers. They caught the attention of an A & R scout from CBS London named Chas De Whalley, who came in with demo money and produced the EP despite a lack of experience. Although the band still wasn’t playing very well, the songs they wrote were strong enough to support their weaknesses. “Out of Control” was chosen as the A-side for the EP by listeners on the Dave Fanning Rock Show on RTE station. Almost as soon as the track starts, it has “U2 anthem” written all over it. By this point, Edge had gotten his Memory Man Echo Unit and had started to develop his trademark sound. In this case, it really makes the song since the rest of the band were still finding their feet. Mullen, Jr, had trouble playing in time, Clayton’s bass was extremely simple, and Bono… well, let’s just say his singing voice wasn’t all that yet. But the song has a real kick to it and a boundless amount of energy that feels contagious. Bono’s lyrical exploration was already moving in an introspective direction. Written on his 18th birthday, he said the song was about hitting that age and “realizing… the two most important decisions in your life have nothing to do with you — being born and dying.” “Stories for Boys” has more of a groove to it than the A-side. Containing a fully expressed sense of excitement, the song deals with escapism from the everyday. While not fully developed, it technically shows more promise than either of the other two songs. Whereas “Out of Control” feels mostly like Edge was in charge, “Stories for Boys” is the sound of the band clicking and playing as a cohesive unit. “Boy-Girl” is the least memorable track on the EP. Dealing with the relationship between (no surprise here) a boy and a girl who are maturing into adults, the song is more like a rough sketch than a fully thought out track. The lyrics don’t go anywhere and the instrumentation is just average at best. It’s not shocking that when U2 were re-recording songs for their first album, Boy, it was the only one out of the three to not make the cut. Limited to 1,000 copies for Ireland, the EP made a surprising splash in the Irish Singles Charts, peaking at number 19. Sadly, CBS UK passed on U2, only offering a record deal if they fired Larry Mullen, Jr. The drummer was still having trouble playing in time but the rest of the band stuck by him. The EP did help them increase their fanbase in their home country even more and was followed by a tour in England. The resulting success of that tour led to a deal with Island Records. The rest is history. Even though the music isn’t really there, the potential of U2 can be heard in all three songs. Well… okay, not “”Boy-Girl”. But “Out of Control” and “Stories for Boys” would go on to be very good album cuts for their debut in 1980. “Out of Control” has been an occasional part of the band’s set list, all the way up to this decade. The sound made on Three isn’t that of one of the world’s biggest bands. It’s the sound of a group that had endless enthusiasm for their music and knew success was within reach. Check Out:
Children with doubts about whether the 7th Ward Santa Claus is real are invited to 'pull this beard off my face,' he said. He was photographed Wednesday with Jelthroe Moses, 3. For many families, the Christmas season is marked by the annual pilgrimage to the 7th Ward to see Santa Claus. ... Other requests aren’t found in catalogs. Like the girl who asked for her parents to get back together. Or the little boy last week, who asked Santa for world peace. “I’m tired of people killing each other,” he said to Santa, who choked up for a moment, then gently changed the subject. “I couldn’t promise him that,” Santa said, but he will never give a child a negative answer. Katy Reckdahl can be reached at 